Delayed Gratification – The Mystery of Koleser Vardomb (Lost Lands #168)

I do not know where the idea for off-roading began, but I do know it is alive and well in my American homeland. A spacious country with plenty of room to roam, a testosterone fueled culture, and all terrain vehicles, means that hundreds of thousands decide to blaze their own paths across the country. This is especially true in remote areas. I have never seen anything in Eastern Europe that comes close to approaching the American love for driving into the unknown. I have been on dirt roads in Hungary and Romania, but not for long. I prefer to stay on paved highways, though I do enjoy finding ones that lead into what could be characterized as the middle of nowhere. Curiosity leads to adventure, and adventure leads to places that few would care to visit. The difference is that I do.

Reverse Route - The Western Front

As I close in on Oradea, I find myself once again taking another detour as part of my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. Detours are a form of delayed gratification that I plan on enjoying to the full. While traveling in Europe my orientation has been eastward. I equate Eastern Europe with the exotic, though if the truth be told, it has become westernized over the past thirty years. This is a reaction to the delay in economic and cultural development caused by communism. Despite this, Eastern Europe is still rougher around the edges and all the better for it. I have traveled eastward in Europe so many times that it has come to feel natural. Perhaps that is why I am finding it strange that throughout the Romanian portion of my lost lands journey, I have been going west as much as I have east. Westward in this context is the Romania-Hungary border. I find myself magnetically pulled towards it. My goal is to get as close as possible to the border without stepping back into Hungary.

I have had several close calls so far, getting to within a few kilometers of border crossings. Inching closer to the edge intrigues me. For over a century, the border has been a point of contention. Tension is at the heart of every great drama. There are few more dramatic dividing lines to be found in Europe than the Romania-Hungary border. I have been studying the map trying to find a way to get within striking distance as I leave Salonta (Nagyszalonta). Just west of the city, I found a place called Koleser Vardomb. The site is marked on a digital map without an accompanying photo. The icon for it is in the shape of a castle. I assumed that this must be the site of ruins. My initial thought is what, if anything, might be left there. If I had to guess, not much. The area is an extension of the Great Hungarian Plain, as such it does not have natural defenses. Historically, the only thing guarding it would have been a sea of grass and cropland. Not much has changed over the centuries.

Formidable Fortification - Making An Impression

Getting to Koleser Vardomb may or may not be problematic because there is not a road that goes to the location. On the other hand, the site is located just beyond the outskirts of Salonta. A walk there will not take long. I am wondering why a noteworthy ruin substantial enough to be marked on a map would not have a road running to it. Especially, considering the size of Salonta and its proximity to the site. That mystery has led me to look further into the matter. What I discovered is that finding Koleser Vardomb on a map is easier than finding information about it. After some sleuthing that involved using online translation tools for information written in Hungarian, I learned that Koleser Vardomb is the site of an old fortification that might date all the way back to the Bronze or Iron Age. History that deep in Eastern Europe is positively prehistoric. Because I know very little about the earliest iterations of human civilization in the region, this information is only mildly interesting to me. For all the arguments between Romanians and Hungarians about who were in the lost lands first, I have never read any that go all the way back to the very beginnings of human civilization.

As for Koleser Vardomb, from what I read there has never been an archaeological survey to properly date the site. This will hopefully be done because there are no ruins to speak of. There are only impressions etched on the earth. An archaeological dig would be extremely revealing. Fortunately, I found some other details that made the site less of a mystery. Koleser Vardomb may have been the site of a fortification in the 16th century that was destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in 1598. After the fortification’s destruction, settlement shifted to Salonta. Thus, Koleser Vardomb was indirectly responsible for the growth of Salonta from a minor village of 300 inhabitants into the city that exists today.

My goal is to visit Koleser Vardomb on foot. Aerial views of the site show the outline of a large fort. For impressions of it to still be recognizable today, the fortification had to be quite substantial. Since the terrain did not offer formidable natural defenses, a large fortification had to be constructed to withstand assaults. Those who engineered Koleser Vardomb spent a considerable amount of time and energy on the defenses. To the point, that time and weathering could not completely eradicate its traces.?

Distant Traces - All Is Not Lost

There are fewer and fewer unexplored historic places in the world today. One like Koleser Vardomb, which has an air of mystery surrounding it, offers the opportunity to engage with distant history. All is not lost if the traces of Koleser Vardomb still exist. There are secrets hidden in the location waiting to be unearthed. That does not always have to be the product of an archeological dig. Curiosity and imagination can go a long way to create a picture of the past. At Koleser Vardomb that picture is still incomplete, but so is human history.