Székely Land
Encyclopedia
The Székely Land or Szekler Land refers to the territories inhabited mainly by the Székely
Székely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...

, a Hungarian-speaking ethnic group from eastern Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

. They live in the valleys and hills of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...

, corresponding to the present-day Harghita, Covasna
Covasna County
Covasna is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Sfântu Gheorghe.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 222,449 and the population density was 60/km².*Hungarians – 73.79% *Romanians – 23.28%...

, and parts of Mureş
Mures County
Mureș is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș.-Geography:The county has a total area of 6,714 km²....

 Counties in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

.

Originally, the name Székely Land denoted an autonomous region within Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

. It existed as a legal entity from medieval times until the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, when the Székely and Saxon
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...

 seats were dissolved and replaced by the county system. Along with Transylvania, it became part of Romania in 1920, returned to Hungary in 1940 and was again attached to Romania in 1945. The area was a Hungarian autonomous region within Romania between 1952 and 1968, and today there are Székely autonomy initiatives
Székely autonomy initiatives
The Székely Land is a region of central Romania. According to official data from the Romania's 2002 census, 668,471 persons in Mureş, Harghita and Covasna counties consider themselves Hungarian...

 to reach a higher level of self-governance for the Székely Land within Romania.

Population

The area of the region is of about 13,000 km2. The population of the Székely Land (according the last census, held in 2002) is 809,000, 612,043 of them Székely Hungarians, namely 75.65%. The Székely represent 59% of the populations of Harghita, Covasna and Mureş counties. The percentage of Székely is higher in Harghita and Covasna (84.6% and 73.8% respectively), and lower in Mureş County, not all of which falls inside the traditional region (39.3%).

Geography

Historically centred in the town of Târgu-Mureş
Târgu-Mures
Târgu Mureș is the seat of Mureș County in the north-central part of Romania. As of January 1, 2009 the city had a population of 145,151 inhabitants, making it the 16th most-populated city in Romania.-Names and etymology:...

 (Marosvásárhely), other important centers of the Székely Land are Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda), Sfântu Gheorghe
Sfântu Gheorghe
Sfântu Gheorghe is the capital city of Covasna County, Romania. Located in the central part of the country and in the historical region of Transylvania, it lies on the Olt River in a valley between the Baraolt Mountains and Bodoc Mountains...

 (Sepsiszentgyörgy), and Odorheiu Secuiesc
Odorheiu Secuiesc
Odorheiu Secuiesc is the second-largest city in Harghita County, Transylvania, Romania. In its short form, it is also known as Odorhei in Romanian and Udvarhely in Hungarian...

 (Székelyudvarhely).

History

Ancient Hungarian legends suggest a connection between the Székely
Székely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...

 people and Attila's Huns, but the origins of the Székely people are widely debated. The Székely Seats were the traditional self-governing territorial units of the Transylvanian Székelys during medieval times. (Saxons were also organised in Seats.) The Seats were not part of the traditional Hungarian county system, and their inhabitants enjoyed a higher level of freedom (especially until the 18th century) than those living in the counties.
From the 12th and 13th centuries until 1876, the Székely Land enjoyed a considerable but varying amount of autonomy, first as a part of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

, then inside the Principality of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, and finally as a part of the Habsburg Empire
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...

. The autonomy was largely due to the military service the Székely provided until the beginning of the 18th century. The medieval Székely Land was an alliance of the seven autonomous Székely
Székely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...

 Seats
Seat (territorial-administrative unit)
Seats were territorial-administrative units in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. The seats were autonomous regions within the Kingdom, and were independent from the feudal county system...

 of Udvarhely, Csík, Maros, Sepsi, Kézdi, Orbai and Aranyos. The number of seats later decreased to five, when Sepsi, Kézdi and Orbai Seats were united into one territorial unit called Háromszék (literally Three Seats).

As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

 became again part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 and ceased to exist as a separate legal or administrative entity. In 1876, a general administrative reform
Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary
The following lists show the administrative divisions of the lands belonging to the Hungarian crown at selected points of time. The names are given in the main official language used in the Kingdom at the times in question....

 abolished all the autonomous areas in the Kingdom of Hungary and created a unified system of counties. As a result, the autonomy of the Székely Land came to an end as well. Four counties were created in its place: Udvarhely
Udvarhely
Udvarhely was the name of an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania . The capital of the county was Székelyudvarhely .-Geography:...

, Háromszék
Háromszék
Háromszék is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania...

, Csík
Csík
Csík was the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania...

, and Maros-Torda
Maros-Torda
Maros-Torda is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania . Its county seat was Marosvásárhely .-Geography:...

. (Only half of the territory of Maros-Torda
Maros-Torda
Maros-Torda is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania . Its county seat was Marosvásárhely .-Geography:...

 originally belonged to Székely Land.) The isolated Aranyosszék became a district of Torda-Aranyos
Torda-Aranyos
Torda-Aranyos is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania . The capital of the county was Turda .-Geography:...

 county.

In the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...

 of 1920 following World War I, the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...

 acquired Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

. The Romanian language officially replaced Hungarian in Székely Land, but Székely county boundaries were preserved, and Székely districts were able to elect their own officials at local level and to preserve Hungarian-language education.

In 1940, Romania was forced to cede Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania is a region of Transylvania, situated within the territory of Romania. The population is largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians, and the region has been part of Romania since 1918 . During World War II, as a consequence of the territorial agreement known as...

 back to Hungary in the Second Vienna Award
Vienna Awards
The Vienna Awards are two arbitral awards by which arbiters of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon...

; this territory included most of the historical Székely areas. Hungarian authorities subsequently restored the pre-Trianon structure with slight modifications.

Autonomy

Following the territory's return to Romania after World War II, a Hungarian Autonomous Region was created in 1952, which encompassed most of the land inhabited by the Székely. This region lasted until 1968 when the administrative reform divided Romania into the current counties. Roughly speaking, present-day Harghita County encompasses the former Udvarhely
Udvarhely
Udvarhely was the name of an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania . The capital of the county was Székelyudvarhely .-Geography:...

 and Csík
Csík
Csík was the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania...

, the latter including Gyergyó; Covasna County
Covasna County
Covasna is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Sfântu Gheorghe.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 222,449 and the population density was 60/km².*Hungarians – 73.79% *Romanians – 23.28%...

 covers more or less the territory of the former Háromszék
Háromszék
Háromszék is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania...

; and what was once Maros-Torda
Maros-Torda
Maros-Torda is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Romania . Its county seat was Marosvásárhely .-Geography:...

 is mostly part of present-day Mureş County
Mures County
Mureș is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș.-Geography:The county has a total area of 6,714 km²....

. The former Aranyosszék is today divided between Cluj
Cluj County
Cluj ; is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Cluj-Napoca.-Demographics:In 2007, it had a population of 692,316 and a population density of 104/km².*Romanians – 80%*Hungarians – 17.5%*Roma – 2.5%-Geography:...

 and Alba
Alba County
Alba is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, its capital city being Alba-Iulia with a population of 66,406.- Demographics :In 2002, it had a population of 382,747 and the population density was 61/km².* Romanians - 90.4%* Hungarians - 5.4%...

 Counties.

After the fall of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

, many hoped that the former Hungarian Autonomous Region, abolished by the Ceauşescu regime, would soon be restored again. This has not happened; however, there are Székely autonomy initiatives
Székely autonomy initiatives
The Székely Land is a region of central Romania. According to official data from the Romania's 2002 census, 668,471 persons in Mureş, Harghita and Covasna counties consider themselves Hungarian...

 and further efforts from Székely organisations to reach a higher level of self-governance for the Székely Land within Romania.

On 2 February 2009, Romanian President Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...

 met with Hungarian President László Sólyom
László Sólyom
László Sólyom is a Hungarian political figure, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 to 2010. Previously he was President of the Constitutional Court of Hungary from 1990 to 1998....

 in Budapest and discussed the issues of minority rights and regional autonomy. Băsescu affirmed "The Hungarian minority will never be given territorial autonomy".

Constitutional issues

Article 1 of the Romanian Constitution
Constitution of Romania
The 1991 Constitution of Romania, adopted on 21 November 1991, voted in the referendum of 8 December 1991 and introduced on the same day, is the current fundamental law that establishes the structure of the government of Romania, the rights and obligations of the country's citizens, and its mode...

 defines the country as a "sovereign, independent, unitary and indivisible national state." It has often been argued that, as a result of this provision, any ethnic-based territorial autonomy, including that of the Székely Land, would be unconstitutional.

Tourist attractions

  • Székely fortified churches - more than 20 Székely villages count fortified churches
  • Baroque church at Şumuleu Ciuc
    Sumuleu Ciuc
    Şumuleu Ciuc is a neighborhood of Miercurea-Ciuc, Harghita County, Romania. Until 1959, it was a separate commune. It is the site of an annual Roman Catholic pilgrimage, when Catholics from all over Hungary and Romania gather there.-Location:...

     (Csíksomlyó), a major Roman Catholic pilgrimage site
  • Rural tourism
    Rural tourism
    Rural tourism focuses on participating in a rural lifestyle. It can be a variant of ecotourism. Any village can be a tourist attraction, and many villagers are very hospitable. Agriculture is becoming highly mechanized and therefore requires less manual labor...

  • Hiking in the Carpathians
  • Mofette, spa
    Spa
    The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but are...

    s
  • Mineral spring
    Mineral spring
    Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals, or other dissolved substances, that alter its taste or give it a purported therapeutic value...

    s, thermal bath
    Thermal bath
    A thermal bath is a warm body of water. It is often referred to as a spa, which is traditionally used to mean a place where the water is believed to have special health-giving properties, though note that many spas offer cold water or mineral water treatments.A thermal bath may be part of a...

    s
  • Salt mines (treatment against allergy and asthma)
  • Traditional Székely handicrafts (pottery
    Pottery
    Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

    , wood carving
    Wood carving
    Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...

    )
  • Mikó Castle
  • Teleki Library
    Teleki Library
    The Teleki Library , also known as Teleki-Bolyai Library and Bibliotheca Telekiana, is a historic public library and current museum in Târgu-Mureş, Romania...

  • Székely National Museum (Székely Nemzeti Múzeum), Sfântu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy
  • Szekler Museum of Ciuc (Csíky Székely Múzeum), Miercurea-Ciuc/Csíkszereda

See also

  • Hungarians in Romania
    Hungarians in Romania
    The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census....

  • Hungarian Autonomous Province
    Hungarian Autonomous Province
    The Magyar Autonomous Region and Mureş-Magyar Autonomous Region were autonomous regions in the People's Republic of Romania .-History:In 1950, Romania adopted a Soviet-style administrative and territorial division of the country into...

  • Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureş
    Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mures
    Târgu Mureş is a town in Romania with an ethnically mixed population that was almost equally distributed between Romanians and Hungarians after the fall of the communist regime in December 1989. In March 1990, short-lived, but violent clashes occurred there between the two ethnic groups in the...

  • Szekler National Council
    Szekler National Council
    The Szekler National Council is the main political organization representing the Székely of Romania.-History:The Council was founded on October 16, 2003. Its first president was József Csapó, who served until autumn 2006, when he resigned...

  • Székely Himnusz
    Székely Himnusz
    The Székely Himnusz has been the unofficial national anthem of the Székely Hungarians living in Székely Land in eastern Transylvania and elsewhere in the world...


External links

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