Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SZÉKELY LAND
Technically it's wrong to call this central patch of Transylvania on the eastern realms of the
Carpathians 'Hungarian Transylvania', but going around much of Székely Land (Ţara
Secuilor in Romanian, Székelyföld in Hungarian) it can feel that way. It's so near to Saxon
towns Braşov and Sighişoara, yet the spirit of many towns - such as Odorheiu Secuiesc
(Székelyudvarhely in Hungarian) and Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda in Hungarian), where
ethnic Hungarians comprise the majority, or the even-split of Târgu Mureş (Marosvásár-
hely in Hungarian) - feels almost foreign.
The area is home to many Székelys, ethnic Hungarians who live and communicate al-
most exclusively in their Hungarian dialect. A level of tension still exists between Romani-
ans and Hungarians, who battled each other during WWI and WWII, and mention of
Székely Land or ethnic Hungarians not learning the Romanian language in some parts of
Romania will bring out verbal editorials; as does any notion of Romania's treatment of the
Hungarians in the 20th century. In Târgu Mureş' main Orthodox church you can see a peas-
ant Jesus dressed in Romanian costume being tortured by nobility in Hungarian costumes.
Statues of Romulus and Remus stress Romania's Latin roots, purposefully placed during
communist times to undermine the Hungarians' claim. Things haven't entirely settled, as
one Hungarian-Romanian noted: 'I tell my son he's Romanian, as am I, but when a
Transylvanian person hears my accent, I'm immediately treated as something less than a
full-blooded Romanian.'
History
The origins of the Székely (see-kay) people are disputed. Debates rage as to whether they
are descendants of the Huns, who arrived in Transylvania in the 5th century and adopted
the Hungarian language, or whether they are Magyars who accompanied Attila the Hun on
his campaigns in the Carpathian basin and later settled there. Three 'nations' were recog-
nised in medieval Transylvania: the Székelys, the Saxons and the Romanian nobles.
During the 18th century the Székelys suffered at the hands of the Habsburgs, who at-
tempted to convert this devout Protestant ethnic group to Catholicism. Thousands of young
Székely men were conscripted into the Austrian army. Local resistance throughout Székely
Land led to the massacre of Madéfalva in 1764, after which thousands of Székelys fled
across the border into Romanian Moldavia.
Following the union of Transylvania with Romania in 1918, some 200,000 Hungarians -
a quarter of whom were Székelys - fled to Hungary. Today, many Hungarian tourists flock
to the area, especially to the 'capitals' of Odorheiu Secuiesc and Miercurea Ciuc, to experi-
ence pastoral customs already lost in their motherland.
