Romania Community

Horizons Unlimited Motorcycle Travellers Community Romania

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From Szabi, (Santha Szabolcs) starter of two new Communities in Romania, Targu Mures, where he works and lives, and Miercurea Ciuc where he grew up, his parents live, and he spends lots of time.

"Some Transylvania history: before World War II Transylvania belonged to Hungary or to Austro-Hungarian Empire, so in this part of Romania there are a lot of Hungarian (and German) people (about 1,5 millions Hungarians, 0,5 millions Germans). The people who come from or live in Hungary (or German languages countries) know these cities by their Hungarian (or German) names. Because of the people in these part of the Hungarian Kingdom were soldiers, and their role was to protect the kingdom's border, in time, they become fewer and fewer, and it was a necessity for the king to settle German knights. This is why in Transylvania a city has two or three names, so this is why the Hungarian names of these cities are also:

- Romanian name of Targu Mures (capital of Mures county) is Marosvásárhely in Hungarian (or Neumarkt in German languages) and - Miercurea Ciuc's Hungarian name is Csíkszereda (Seklerburg in German languages) - capital of Harghita county.

NOTE: The Encarta 2002 maps knew their Hungarian names even the name of the small villages, but the 2004-2005 Encarta forget them. :-(

But their official names are the Romanian names.

Some links that may be useful:

Here is (about) all the information a traveller need. It is about Hargita County and has English version. Satellite photo of M-Ciuc and its environment here.

About Tg Mures: http://www.muresonline.ro in Hungarian only - no English or German translation.

More to come, submissions welcome!

UPDATE:

From Virgil Codarcea, Romania, comes this correction:

"Transylvania was indeed not always part of Romania but this was before WW I and not before WW II which is significantly different. Transylvania never belonged to Hungary simply because at the time when it was not part of Romania (before 1918), Hungary did not exist as such but was just a province of an empire."