The Medieval History of Transilvania:  1000 - 1900

from the Middle Ages through to the middle 20th Century was largely dominated by Austrian and Hungarian Rule, from early Magyar mercenaries, through Ottoman administration and the Habsburg, Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

Soon after Transilvania's King Stephen the I of Hungary enforced Catholicism in 1009, the region's borders were populated by the Székelys.   The Carpathian basin was then was filled with Saxon settlers in the 12th and 13th Centuries and Transilvania began to function as a modern economy.

Medieval Transilvania:  The Hungarians

Late Middle Ages: Transilvania as part of the Kingdom of Hungary

In 1000 Vajk, chieftain of the Magyars swore allegiance to Rome, and became King Stephen I of Hungary, adopting Catholicism and bringing about the Christianization of the Magyars. Stephen's maternal uncle Gyula, the ruler of Transilvania, antagonised the new king by giving refuge to his opponents. Gyula also maintained control of the economically important Transilvanian salt mines.

In 1003, Stephen led an army into Transilvania and Gyula surrendered without a fight. This made possible the organisation of the Transilvanian Catholic episcopacy which was finished in 1009 when the bishop of Ostia as the legate of the Pope paid a visit to Stephen; together they approved the division of the dioceses and their boundaries.

The Székelys, a Hungarian-speaking community of uncertain origin, may have entered Transilvania before the Magyars conquered the Carpathian basin. By the 12th century the Székelys were established in eastern and south-eastern Transilvania as border guards.

The Colonists in Eastern Hungary and Siebenbürgen

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the areas in the south and northeast were settled by German colonists called (then and now) Saxons. Siebenbürgen, the German name for Transilvania, derives from the seven principal fortified towns founded by these Transilvanian Saxons. The German influence became more marked when, early in the 13th century, King Andrew II of Hungary called on the Teutonic Knights to protect Transilvania in the Burzenland from the Cumans. After the Order began expanding their territory outside of Transilvania and acting independently, Andrew expelled the knights in 1225.

In 1241 three great Mongol armies invaded Hungary, two of which attacked Transilvania. The first army led by Kadan Khan crossed the Carpathians at the Rodna pass and attacked the Saxon-populated town Rodna, Bistriţa, Cluj-Napoca, and the Mezőség region. The other army led by Bogutaj Khan marched into the country at the Oituz pass and ravaged southern Transilvania. A separate Mongol division destroyed the western Cumans near the Şiret river in the Carpathian region and annihilated the Cuman Bishopric of Milcov. Estimates of population decline in Transilvania owing to the Mongol invasion range from 15-20% to 50%.

The Western and Eastern Cumans converted to Roman Catholicism, and, after they were defeated by the Mongols, looked for refuge in central Hungary; Erzsebet, a Cumanian princess, married Stephen V of Hungary in 1254.

The administration of Transilvania was in the hands of a voivod appointed by the King. The word voivod or voievod first appeared in historical documents in 1193. Prior to that, the term ispán was used for the chief official of the County of Alba. The whole historical territory of Transilvania came under the rule of the voievod after 1263, when the functions of Count of Szolnok (Doboka) and Count of Alba were terminated. The voivod controlled seven comitatus. According to Chronica Pictum, Transilvania's first voivod was Zoltán Erdoelue, King Stephen's relative.

The three most important dignitaries of the 14th century were the voivod, the Bishop of Transilvania and the Abbot of Kolozsmonostor (outskirt of present day Cluj-Napoca).

Hungarian Estates in Transilvania

Transilvania was organized according to the system of Estates. Transilvanian Estates were privileged groups or universities (the central power acknowledged some collective or communal "liberties") with power and influence in socio-economic and political life; nevertheless they were organized according to certain ethnic criteria as well.

As in the rest of the Hungarian kingdom, the first Estate was the aristocracy (lay and ecclesiastic), ethnically heterogeneous, but undergoing a process of homogenization around its Hungarian nucleus. The basic document that granted privileges to the entire aristocracy was the Golden Bull issued by king Andrew II in 1222.

The other Estates were Saxons, Székelys and Romanians, all with an ethnic and ethno-linguistic basis. The Saxons, who had settled in southern Transilvania in the 12th- 13th centuries, were granted privileges in 1224 by the Golden Bull, also called the Andreanum. Székelys and Romanians were not regarded as newcomers (colonists) in Transilvania, thus they were not granted general but partial privileges.

In 1293 AD King Endre of Hungary adopted a resolution in which inhabitants of Wallachia would come into the empire as an estate.  During this period, significant districts of Wallachia came under direct Hungarian rule as far east as Prahova, Buzau and over to the Şiret river until 1330.

The territory between the Olt river (North to Transilvanian Alps) and the present day Muntenia formed a principality ruled by the Holy Crown. These parts represented the basis for the so-called Univeris Olcahis. After Muntenia became an independent Principality under Woywode Basarab the Romanians have lost their independent status and privileges; however, Ţara Oltului remained an estate of the Wallachian Prince.

Romanians Removed from Power

Through the late 1200s and early 1300s, when the king or the voivod summoned the general assembly of Transilvania attended by the four Estates: noblemen, Saxons, Székelys, Romanians.  The Romanian Estate was known as "Universitas Valachorum", roughly, the realm of the Wallachians.   While Székelys kept on consolidating these privileges and extended them over the entire ethnic group, Romanians had difficulty keeping their old privileges throughout Muntenia and Wallachia, and ended up by gradually losing the rank of a distinct Estate. 

After 1366 Romanians lost their status as an Estate and were excluded from Transilvania's assemblies. The main reason was religion: during Louis I's proselytizing campaign, privileged status was deemed incompatible with that of "schismatic" in a state endowed with an apostolic mission by the Holy Seed: through the Decree of Turda/Torda, in 1366, the king redefines nobility in terms of appurtenance to the Roman Catholic Church, thus excluding the Eastern Orthodox schismatic Romanian.

After 1366 the nobility status is determined not only by ownership over land and people, but also by the possession of a royal donation certificate. Since Romanians' social elite, chiefly made up by aldermen (iudices) or ‘knezes' (kenezii), who ruled over their villages according to the old law of the land (ius valachicum), managed to a small extent to procure writs of donation, they came to be expropriated. Lacking land property and/or the official status of owner and being officially excluded from privileges as schismatic, the Romanian elite was not able any more to form an Estate and participate in the country's assemblies

Estate Claimed

In 1437 Hungarian and Romanian peasants, the petty nobility and burghers from Cluj/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg under the leadership of Budai Nagy Antal upraised against their feudal masters and proclaimed their own Estate (universitas hungarorum et valachorum - the Estate of Hungarians and Romanians) see: Bobâlna revolt). In order to suppress the revolt, the Transilvanian nobility, the Saxon burghers and the Székelys formed the Unio Trium Nationum (The Union of the Three Nations), an alliance of mutual aid against the peasants, jointly pledging to defend their privileges against any power except that of Hungary's king. By 1438, the rebellion was crushed. From 1438 onwards the political system was based on the Unio Trium Nationum and the society was leaded by these three privileged nations (Estates): the nobility (mostly Magyars), the Székelys and the Saxon burghers. These nations, however, corresponded more to social and religious rather than ethnic divisions. Being explicitly directed against the peasants, the Union limited the number of Estates, implicitly excluding the Orthodox from political and social life in Transilvania.

However Eastern Orthodox Romanians were not given to build up local self-government (like the Székelys, Saxons in Transilvania, Cumans and Iazyges in Hungary), the Romanian ruling class the "nobilis kenezius" had the same rights like Hungarian "nobilis conditionarius". Contrary to Maramureş, after the Decree of Turda/Torda 1366 in proper Transilvania the only possibility to remain or access nobility was for them through conversion to Roman Catholicism. In order to conserve their positions some Romanian families converted to Catholicism, being subsequently Magyarized (see the Bedőházi, Bilkei, Ilosvai, Drágffy, Dánfi, Rékási, Dobozi, Mutnoki, Dési, Majláth, Hunyadi/Corvinus etc. families). Some of them even reached the highest ranks of the society (Nicolaus Olahus became Archbishop of Esztergom, while half Romanian Governor John Hunyadi's son - Mathias Corvinus - became king of Hungary).

The Black Church The Lutheran Cathedral in Braşov, the church of Protestant Saxon Transilvania

The Hunyadi Coat of Arms

John Hunyadi A hand-coloured woodcut from the Johannes de Thurocz Chronicle

Nevertheless, since the overwhelming majority of Romanians refused to convert to Roman Catholicism, in the constitutional system of the three nations there was no place left for them up to the 19th century, to be politically represented. Thus, they remained deprived of their rights and subject to specific segregation such as not being allowed to dwell or acquire houses in the cities, to build stone churches, or enjoy fair justice.

Several examples of legal decisions taken by the three nations some hundred years after Unio Trium Nationum (1542-1555) are illustrative: the Romanian could not appeal to justice against Hungarians and Saxons, but the latter could turn in the Romanian (1552); the Hungarian (Hungarus) accused of robbery could be defended by the oath of the village judge and three honest men, while the Romanian (Valachus) needed the oath of the village knez, four Romanians and three Hungarians (1542) ; the Hungarian peasant could be punished after being accused by seven trustworthy people, while the Romanian received punishment after he was accused by three trustworthy people (1554).

John Hunyadi, Prince of Transilvania

A key figure to emerge in Transilvania in the first half of the 15th century was John Hunyadi, son of a Magyarized Romanian or Serbian noble, who married Erzsébet Szilágyi (c.. 1410-1483), a Hungarian noblewoman. Hunyadi was awarded numerous estates and a seat in the royal council for his services to Sigismund, King of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor.

After supporting the candidature of Ladislaus III of Poland to the throne of Hungary, he was rewarded in 1440 with the captaincy of the fortress of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) and the voivodship of Transilvania.

Near Sibiu in 1442, Hunyadi annihilated an immense Ottoman presence, and recovered for Hungary the suzerainty of Wallachia and Moldavia; in July, he vanquished a third Turkish army near the Iron Gates at the Danube River

These military exploits against the Ottoman Empire brought him further status as the governor of Hungary in 1446 and papal recognition as the Prince of Transilvania in 1448. John Hunyadi was also the father of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.

Transilvania as an independent principality

When the main Hungarian army and King Louis II Jagiello were slain by the Ottomans in the Battle of Mohács (1526), John Zapolya, governor of Transilvania, took advantage of his military strength and put himself at the head of the nationalist Hungarian party, which opposed the succession of Ferdinand of Austria (later Emperor Ferdinand I) to the Hungarian throne.

As John I was elected king of Hungary, another party recognized Ferdinand. In the ensuing struggle Zapolya received the support of Sultan Suleiman I, who after Zapolya's death in 1540 overran central Hungary on the pretext of protecting Zapolya's son, John II. Hungary was now divided into three sections: West Hungary, under Austrian rule; central Hungary, under Turkish rule; and semi-independent Transilvania under Ottoman suzerainty, where Austrian and Turkish influences vied for supremacy for nearly two centuries.

Transilvania was now beyond the reach of Catholic religious authority, allowing Lutheran and Calvinist preaching to flourish. In 1563, Giorgio Blandrata was appointed as court physician, and his radical religious ideas increasingly influenced both the young king John II and the Calvinist bishop Francis David, eventually converting both to the Anti-Trinitarian (Unitarian) creed.

In a formal public disputation, Francis David prevailed over the Calvinist Peter Melius; resulting in 1568 in the formal adoption of individual freedom of religious expression under the Edict of Turda (the first such legal guarantee of religious freedom in Christian Europe, however only for Lutherans, Calvinists, Unitarians and of course Catholics, with the Christian Orthodox Confession being explicitly banned).

The Báthory family, which came to power on the death of John II in 1571, ruled Transilvania as princes under the Ottomans, and briefly under Habsburg suzerainty, until 1602.

The younger Stephen Báthory, a Hungarian Catholic who later became King Stephen Bathory of Poland, undertook to maintain the religious liberty granted by the Edict of Turda, but interpreted this obligation in an increasingly restricted sense. The latter period of Báthory rule saw a four-sided conflict in Transilvania involving the Transilvanians, the Austrians, the Ottomans, and the Romanian voivod of Wallachia, Prince Michael the Brave.

Michael the Brave, 1599

The Whipping Boyar The ruling class could be thoroughly vile to their peasant population

Michael the Brave Formed the First United Romania, 1599

Transilvania, 1606 After the Peace of Zitava and Peace of Vienna accords

While surrounded by the Ottoman Empire and Austria, Transilvania's Geography served to buffer the trans-Carpathian basin heartland

Michael gained control of Transilvania in 1599 after the Battle of Şelimbăr in which he defeated Andrew Báthory's army. Báthory was killed by Szeklers who hoped to regain their old privileges with Michael's help. In May 1600 Michael also gained control of Moldavia, uniting the three principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transilvania (the three main parts of present-day Romania).

Michael the Brave was never made a prince by the Transilvanian nobility, and the governments of the two countries remained separate. Michael did however install Wallachian boyars in certain offices, but even so, he did not interfere with the Transilvanian Estates, and sought support from the Hungarian nobility. The union did not last long, however, as Michael was assassinated by Walloon mercenaries under the command of the Habsburg general Giorgio Basta in August 1601. The rule of Michael the Brave was marred by the pillaging of Wallachian and Serbian mercenaries as well as Székelys avenging the Szárhegy Bloody Carnival of 1596.

After the defeat of Michael at Miriszló, the Transilvanian Estates swore allegiance to the Habsburg Emperor, Rudolph. As Basta finally subdued Transilvania in 1604 and initiated a reign of terror in which he was authorised to appropriate the land of noblemen, Germanize the population, and reclaim the principality for Catholicism through the Counter Reformation.

The period between 1599 (Battle of Şelimbăr) - and 1604 (fall of gen. Basta) was the most tragic period of Transilvania since the Mongol invasion. "Misericordia dei quod non consumti sumus" (only God's merciful save us from annihilation) carachterised this period an anonymous Saxon writer.

Autonomous Transilvania's Golden Age, 1613 - 1659

From 1604-1606, the Calvinist magnate of Bihar county Stephen Bocskai led a successful rebellion against Austrian rule. Bocskai was elected Prince of Transilvania on 5 April 1603 and prince of Hungary two months later. The two main achievements of Bocskai's brief reign (he died 29 December 1606) were the Peace of Vienna (June 23, 1606), and the Peace of Žitava (November 1606).

By the Peace of Vienna, Bocskai obtained religious liberty and political autonomy, the restoration of all confiscated estates, the repeal of all "unrighteous" judgments, and a complete retroactive amnesty for all Hungarians in Royal Hungary, as well as his own recognition as independent sovereign prince of an enlarged Transilvania. Almost equally important was the twenty years Peace of Žitava, negotiated by Bocskai between Sultan Ahmed I and Emperor Rudolf II.

Under Bocskai's successors Transilvania had its golden age, especially under the reigns of Gabriel Bethlen and George I Rákóczi. Gabriel Bethlen, who reigned from 1613 to 1629, perpetually thwarted all efforts of the emperor to oppress or circumvent his subjects, and won reputation abroad by championing the Protestant cause.

Three times he waged war on the emperor, twice he was proclaimed King of Hungary, and by the Peace of Nikolsburg (December 31, 1621) he obtained for the Protestants a confirmation of the Treaty of Vienna, and for himself seven additional counties in northern Hungary. Bethlen's successor, George I Rákóczi, was equally successful. His principal achievement was the Peace of Linz (September 16, 1645), the last political triumph of Hungarian Protestantism, in which the emperor was forced to confirm again the articles of the Peace of Vienna. Gabriel Bethlen and George I Rákóczi also did much for education and culture, and their era has justly been called the golden era of Transilvania. They lavished money on the embellishment of their capital Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár, Weißenburg), which became the main bulwark of Protestantism in Eastern Europe. During their reign Transilvania was also one of the few European countries where Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans, and Unitarians lived in mutual tolerance, all of them belonging to the officially accepted religions, while Orthodoxy was barely tolerated.

The fall of Várad (1660) marked the decline of Transilvania which ended with a fully integration in the Habsburg Empire. Under Prince Kemeny, the diet of Transilvania proclaimed the secession of Transilvania from the Ottomans (April 1661) and appealed for help to Vienna but a secret Habsburg-Ottoman agreement resulted in further ruination of the Principality of Transilvania.

Austrian Rule and the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1683 - 1918

After the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Habsburgs gradually began to impose their rule on the formerly autonomous Transilvania. Apart from strengthening the central government and administration, the Habsburgs also promoted the Roman Catholic Church, both as a uniting force and also as an instrument to reduce the influence of the Protestant nobility. By creating a conflict between Protestant and Catholic elements, the Habsburgs hoped to weaken the estates.

In addition, they tried to persuade Orthodox clergymen to join the Uniate (Greek Catholic) Church, which accepted four key points of Catholic doctrine and acknowledged papal authority, while still retaining Orthodox rituals and traditions. In 1699 and 1701, Emperor Leopold I decreed Transilvania's Orthodox Church to be one with the Roman Catholic Church. Many, but not all, priests converted, although it was not clear to them what the difference was between the two denominations.

From 1711 onward, Austrian control over Transilvania was consolidated, and the princes of Transilvania were replaced with Austrian governors. The proclamation (1765) of Transilvania as a grand principality was a mere formality. The pressure of Austrian bureaucratic rule gradually eroded the traditional independence of Transilvania. In 1791 the Romanians petitioned Emperor Leopold II for recognition as the fourth "nation" of Transilvania and for religious equality, but the Transilvanian Diet rejected their demands, restoring the Romanians to their old discriminating status.

In early 1848, the Hungarian Diet took the opportunity presented by the revolution to enact a comprehensive legislative program of reforms, referred to as the April Laws, which also included provision for the union of Transilvania and Hungary. The Romanians of Transilvania initially welcomed the revolution believing that they would benefit from the liberal reforms.

Feature

Historical flag and coat of arms of Transilvania The Diet of 1659 codified the representation of the privileged nations in Transilvania's coat of arms. It depicts: A black eagle on a blue background, representing the medieval nobility, which was primarily Magyar. The Sun and the Moon representing the Székelys. Seven red towers on a yellow background representing the seven fortified cities of the Transilvanian Saxons

Coat of Arms from 1659

(The red dividing band was originally not part of the coat of arms.)

As part of the coat of arms of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon in 1920

Below:  As in the coat of arms of Romania at present (lower right quadrant)

The Transilvanian Flag before 1918, with the colours of today's Romania

However, their position changed due to the opposition of Transilvanian nobles to reforms such as emancipation of the serfs, and the failure of the Hungarian revolutionary leaders to recognise Romanian national interests. A Romanian national assembly at Blaj in the middle of May, produced its own revolutionary program calling for proportionate representation of Romanians in the Transilvanian Diet and an end to social and ethnic oppression. The Saxons were worried from the start about the idea of union with Hungary, fearing the loss of their traditional privileges.

When the Transilvanian Diet met on 29 May the vote for union was pushed through despite the objection of many Saxon deputies. On June 10, the Emperor sanctioned the union vote of the Diet. Military executions, the arrest of revolutionary leaders and other activities which followed the union hardened the position of the Saxons. In September 1848, another Romanian assembly in Blaj denounced union with Hungary and called for an armed rising in Transilvania.

Warfare erupted in November with both Romanian and Saxon troops, under Austrian command, battling the Hungarians led by the Polish general Józef Bem. Within four months, Bem had ousted the Austrians from Transilvania. However, in June 1849, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia responded to an appeal from Emperor Franz Joseph to send Russian troops into Transilvania. After initial successes against the Russians, Bem's army was defeated decisively at the Battle of Temesvár (Timişoara) on 9 August; the surrender of Hungary followed.

The Austrians clearly rejected the October demand that the ethnical criteria become the basis for internal borders, with the goal of creating a province for Romanians (Transilvania grouped alongside the Banat and Bukovina), as they did not want to replace the threat of Hungarian nationalism with the potential one of Romanian separatism. Yet they did not declare themselves hostile to the rapid creation of Romanian administrative offices within Transilvania, one which prevented Hungary from including the region in all but name.

The territory was organized in prefecturi ("prefectures"), with Avram Iancu and Buteanu as two prefects in the Apuseni. Iancu's prefecture, the Auraria Gemina (a name charged with Latin symbolism), became the most important one as it took over from bordering areas that were never really fully organized.

In the same month, the administrative efforts were put to a halt, as Hungarians under Józef Bem carried out a sweeping offensive through Transilvania. With the discreet assistance of Imperial Russian troops, the Austrian army (except for the garrisons at Alba Iulia and Deva) and the Austrian-Romanian administration retreated to Wallachia and Wallachian Oltenia (both were, at the time, under Russia's occupation).

Avram Iancu's remained the only resistance force: he retreated to harsh terrain, mounting a guerrilla campaign on Bem's forces, causing severe damage and blocking the route to Alba Iulia. He was, however, challenged by severe shortages himself: the Romanians had few guns and very little gunpowder. The conflict dragged on for the next months, with all Hungarian attempts to seize the mountain stronghold being overturned.

Avram Iancu

In April 1849, Iancu was approached by the Hungarian envoy Ioan Dragoş (in fact, a Romanian deputy in the Hungarian Parliament). Dragoş appeared to have been acting out of his own desire for peace, and he worked hard to get the Romanian leaders to meet him in Abrud and listen to the Hungarian demands. Iancu's direct adversary, Hungarian commander Imre Hatvany, seems to have taken profit on the provisoral armistice to attack the Romanians in Abrud. He did not, however, benefit from a surprise, as Iancu and his men retreated and then encircled him. In the interval, Dragoş was lynched by the Abrud crowds, in the belief that he was part of Hatvany's ruse.

Hatvany also angered the Romanians by having Buteanu captured and murdered. While his position became weaker, he was permanently attacked by Iancu's men, until the major defeat of May 22. Hatvany and most of his armed group were massacred by their adversaries, as Iancu captured their cannons, switching the tactical advantage for the next months. Kossuth was angered by Hatvany's gesture (an inspection of the time dismissed all of Hatvany's close collaborators), especially since it made future negotiations unlikely.

However, the conflict became less harsh: Iancu's men concentrated on taking hold of local resources and supplies, opting to inflict losses only through skirmishes. The Russian intervention in June precipitated things, especially since the Poles fighting in the Hungarian revolutionary contingents wanted to see an all-out resistance to the Tsarist armies. People like Henryk Dembiński mediated for an understanding between Kossuth and the Wallachian émigré revolutionaries. The latter, understandably close to Avram Iancu (especially Nicolae Bălcescu, Gheorghe Magheru, Alexandru G. Golescu, and Ion Ghica) were also keen to inflict a defeat on the Russian armies that had crushed their movement in September 1848.

Bălcescu and Kossuth met in May 1849, in Debrecen. The contact has for long been celebrated by Romanian Marxist historians and politicians: Karl Marx's condemnation of everything opposing Kossuth had led to any Romanian initiative being automatically considered reactionary. In fact, it appears that the agreement was in no way a pact: Kossuth meant to flatter the Wallachians, by getting them to champion the idea of Iancu's armies leaving Transilvania for good, in order to help Bălcescu in Bucharest. While agreeing to mediate for peace, Bălcescu never presented these terms to the fighters in the Apuseni. His personal documents (commented by Liviu Maior) show that the un-realistic assumptions of Kossuth had made him view the Hungarian leader as a demagogue.

Even more contradictory, the only thing Avram Iancu agreed to (and which no party had asked for) was his forces' neutrality in the conflict between Russia and Hungary. Thus, he secured his position as the Hungarian armies suffered defeats in July, culminating in the Battle of Segesvár, and then the capitulation of August 13.

After quashing the revolution, Austria imposed a repressive regime on Hungary and ruled Transilvania directly through a military governor, with German again becoming the official language. Austria abolished the Union of Three Nations and granted citizenship to the Romanians. Although the former serfs were given land by the Austrian authorities, it was often barely sufficient for subsistence living. These poor conditions obliged many Romanian families to cross into Wallachia and Moldavia searching for better lives.

Habsburg Transilvania, 1857 The three states which will become Romania all under the control of the surrounding empires.

Romanians in Transilvania, 1911 For 1000 years since the first Hungarian mercenaries marched, Transilvania was the eastern buffer state for the west.

However, in the compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the special status of Transilvania ended and it became a province under Hungarian control. While part of Austria-Hungary, Transilvania's Romanians were oppressed by the Hungarian administration through Magyarization; the German Saxons were also subject to this policy, but not as heavily as were Romanians.

During the time of Austria-Hungary, Hungarian-administered "Transilvania proper" consisted of a 15-county (Hungarian: megye) region, covering 54,400 km˛ in the southeast of the former Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian counties at the time were Alsó-Fehér, Beszterce-Naszód, Brassó, Csík, Fogaras, Háromszék, Hunyad, Kis-Küküllő, Kolozs, Maros-Torda, Nagy-Küküllő, Szeben, Szolnok-Doboka, Torda-Aranyos, and Udvarhely.

Hungarian minority in Romania

  Add our Search Map to Your Favourites   Add our Travel Forum to Your Favourites

RestRomânia.ro        Advertise       Contact Us  

USA:  E-mail Us Now! or Toll-Free 1 (866) 800-6464 

Romania:  E-Mail Sales or +40 (745) 882-738   Fax +40 (31) 710-7036

 EMail Administration in Romania or call +40 (726) 416 116

We appreciate the opportunity to serve you,
 so please let us know now what  we can do better in the future!

Some content on this page is derived from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopaedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify sections of this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. Sections which may be used under the GNU License may include sections marked with the "ol" style class on paragraphs, table cells and tables.

Sections of this page which may NEVER  be used under the GNU license (other licenses and copyrights apply) include the page header and page footer blocks common to Rest Romania websites; images bearing the Rest Romania distinctive diamond-R as logo or background watermark; all paragraphs, table cells and tables marked with a "cc" or "rr" style class showing distinctive coloured right margin dots; Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts (as set forth in the GNU license). A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Apăsaţi aici pentru o traducere neoficială a Licenţei GNU pentru Documentaţie liberă  în limba română. Versiunea oficială este the "GNU Free Documentation License" în limba engleză