Next Stop Transylvania

We're headed to Cluj-Napoca this weekend, the largest city in Transylvania.  #Draculaland 🧛‍♂️ Here's a bit about the region.

Transylvania is located in Romania.  On the region's east and south are the Carpathian Mountains and the Apuseni Mountains on the west.

The area was conquered by the Roman Empire in the 2nd century and it became part of the province of Dacia.  After the Romans, between the 3rd to 9th centuries came the Goths, Huns, Gepids, Avars and Slavs.  During the 9th century, it was conquered by Hungarian tribes.

From 1000 - 1526, Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary.  During this time, the elites were the Hungarian nobility, Székelys, and Saxons (Germans) while the Romanian majority were largely excluded from political representation. 

In 1526, it became the Principality of Transylvania which was an autonomous state under the Ottoman Empire.  After the Ottomans were defeated in 1699, it became part of the Habsburg Monarchy.  

After WWI, the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Treaty of Trianon, and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it became part of Romania.  Romanians see it as a moment of national unity.  Hungarians consider it a national loss since it was part of Hungary for centuries.

There are a little over 1 million ethic Hungarians living in Romania today.  While some nationalist Hungarian politicians may talk about "Historical Hungary", and the need to protect Hungarians living abroad, Hungary does not officially lay claim to Transylvania.  

Romania and Hungary are both members of the EU and NATO, and both countries recognise each other's borders.

A fun historical twist:  Béla Lugosi, the start who made Dracula famous in the 1931 film, was an ethnic Hungarian born in what is no Romaia.

For Americans, the classic "Dracula accent" is actually English spoken with a Hungarian accent, not a Romanian one - a cultural legacy of Lugosi's performance.