The Looming Prospect – Poetic Justice In Salonta (Lost Lands #167)

I used to drive back and forth across the United States when I worked seasonal jobs. The drive would usually take me three days to get from the Sonoran Desert of Arizona to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I would spend anywhere from 12 to 14 hours per day in the car. During that time, I noticed how certain places on the map or road signs would begin to take on a prominence that was far beyond their size. For example, Lordsburg, New Mexico loomed large in my mind for a couple of hours before I arrived and quickly passed by there. While I did not stop in Lordsburg, that did not really matter. The town was important because it was as much of a milestone as any numerical marker along the highway. Making it to Lordsburg was an event, one that twenty-five years later I have never forgotten. That was the first of many Lordsburgs to come. The next one just so happens to be Salonta (Nagyszalonta) on the frontiers of western Romania.

Guilt Trip - The Weight of Anticipation

For the past couple of weeks, I have been anticipating Oradea while developing my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. Each time I pass through another village on my way northward on the E671, I look on the map to see how much further it is to Oradea. As I do that, the small city of Salonta keeps getting in the way. I decided several days ago that Salonta was a must see. Why? To paraphrase the immortal words of Sir George Mallory on climbing Mt. Everest, “Because it is there.” Salonta has grown to Everest proportions in my mind. There have been plenty of detours along the way, but I am now on the verge of reaching the long-awaited summit. Salonta is the beneficiary of my own mental guilt trip. When spying Salonta on the map, my eye jumps inevitably forward to Oradea. I tend to skip over Salonta. Something tells me I should not. While Oradea is my ultimate destination, Salonta feels like destiny. How could I skip it when I am willing to give Zerind, Avram Iancu, and Ciumeghiu several hours a day. Salonta deserves more than me eyeing it during a drive-by on the way to Oradea.

There is something about Salonta that rings true. I had never heard of it even though the name sounded familiar. Romanian is a Latin language. I detected linguistic kindred spirits with other languages such as French and Italian. Salonta sounded like it could have been somewhere in Italy. Not quite Salerno, but close. Familiarity brings curiosity and comfort. Plus, I have been within half an hour of Salonta on three separate occasions. I came close to crossing paths with the city on previous trips to Crisana. Salonta is located 24 kilometers from a road crossing on the Romania-Hungary border and 36 kilometers southwest of Oradea. It is also the first city I will come to on my journey between Arad and Oradea. Albeit a small one with just 15,000 people. Despite its modest size, Salonta dwarfs anything else along my route thus far. Nevertheless, it did not take me long to discover that Salonta has a lot to offer when it comes to the lost lands.?

Statuesque Symbol – The Hungarian Presence

Salonta’s Hungarian connections run deep. I realized this before reading a single word about the city. While searching for images of it, I came across one with a statue of the famous Hungarian revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth. Statues of Hungarian heroes no longer enjoy pride of place in the lost lands. The post-World War I Treaty of Trianon, the Second World War and communism led to the removal of most Hungarian inspired statues. This has been somewhat reversed since the Iron Curtain fell as ethnic tensions have ebbed. I have yet to find out whether that Kossuth statue in Salonta is a survivor of the 20th century or a more recent addition. What I do know is that the statue symbolizes the Hungarian presence in the city. I did not need to see any demographic data to tell me as much. I assumed quite rightly that Hungarian’s made up a sizable proportion of Salonta’s inhabitants. Sure enough, research showed demographic numbers in their favor.

In the last census, 58% of Salonta’s population was Hungarian and 39% Romanian. Hungarians, and Romanians live side by side in the city while interacting on a daily basis. The Hungarian influence on Salonta is not just a matter of numbers either. The city is known by Hungarians because it was the hometown of Janos Arany, who many consider the greatest Hungarian poet of the 19th century. Arany’s most famous work was the narrative trilogy of poems Toldi. The poems are named after the main character, a legendary soldier who is said to have served one of Hungary’s greatest kings. The Toldi name has deep roots in the area. Prior to the 17th century, Salonta was a minor village with just 300 inhabitants owned by the Toldi family. Salonta began to grow when Hajdu soldiers (pro-Hungarian guerilla warriors) were settled in the area at the beginning of the 17th century. Though the Ottoman Turks would later conquer the town, Salonta managed to survive their occupation and began to grow after they were expelled.

Proud Tower - A Claim To Fame

Salonta’s main claim to fame is Arany. Like so many writers, Arany grew up in less-than-ideal circumstances in Salonta. He had 10 siblings. Tragically, Arany was one of only two that survived to adulthood. Family tragedy revisited Arany later in life when pneumonia took the life of his daughter Julianna. Her death sent him into a terrible depression that left him unable to write for a couple of years. Arany’s work was a triumph over personal tragedy. He left behind a literary legacy that has risen to legendary status among Hungarians. The Janos Arany Memorial Museum, Romania’s oldest literary museum, can be found in the “Truncated Tower”, the only part of Salonta Castle that still stands today. The tower is an evocative setting to learn about Arany and his literary works. That will be one of my first ports of call when I visit Salonta. I am sure it will not be the only one.