TRANSYLVANIA AND GALICIA
On the west of Hungary lies that mountainous land, rich in minerals,
namely Transylvania, which so long stood alone and even now is
possessed of a spirit of independence, which is likely to give
trouble, though for the time in full legislative and political
union with Hungary. The Magyar name for the country is Erdely,
meaning forest-land, and is akin to the Latin one with its obvious
signification “beyond the woods.” The country contains about 21,000
square miles, and on account of its rugged heights resembles a great
natural fortress. The chief peoples, the Wallachians, Saxons, and
Roumanians, different as they are among themselves, are united in
common discontent against the attempts of Hungary to impose her own
language and ideas on the land they share. They cannot forget that
for nearly two centuries, from 1538, they were an independent kingdom
under a king of their own choosing, and it was not till 1699 that the
influence of Austria as suzerain was allowed. The support of the Turks
alone rendered this independence possible, it is true, but, however
obtained, it gave the people a taste for freedom. In 1849 Transylvania
became an Austrian crown-land, but since the settlement of 1867 it has
been an integral part of Hungary. The university founded at Klausenburg
or Kolozsvar in 1872 is Hungarian, and Magyar is the official language.
The hardy race of men called Wallachs are as different from the
Magyars as the Magyars are from the Austrians. Besides the Wallachs
and Roumanians, which are the two dominant races, there are also Jews,
Armenians, Saxons, and Szeklers, who are descended from early Magyar
settlers, and have developed on different lines from their brothers in
the plain. The Transylvanians are as restless, and as great a thorn
in the side of Hungary as she is in that of Austria, and the complete
Magyarisation of the country can never be carried out with these
opposing elements behind. The State schools teach in Magyar, but in
opposition to these a large number of elementary voluntary schools are
kept up where Roumanian is the principal tongue.
There are passes into the country from the Hungarian side, but toward
Russia the mountains are so precipitous and steep that they give the
appearance of artificial escarpments made for defence on a giant scale.
The highest peaks attain a height of over 8000 feet. The climate varies
greatly, the summers being very hot and the winters intensely cold.
[Illustration: HARVEST-TIME IN TRANSYLVANIA]
Transylvania is completely hemmed in by the South-Eastern Carpathians,
besides being cut up by them, and its people are mountaineers, looking
with disdain on the dwellers in the level plain. To them life without
heights and hollows, and the constant sense of watchful grandeur given
by rising peaks, would be tame and colourless. The mountaineer’s
muscles are wrought to india-rubber by continual change of action.
His spring is as light as that of a roebuck. To look down into the
blackness of a crevasse, to see the roaring torrent filled by the last
downfall of rain or by the melting of the pure white peaks far above,
is an everyday experience with him, as little noticeable as the passing
of wheeled vehicles to a townsman. He has to work hard to gain a scanty
living, but the fatness of the plains covered with waving cornfields
would seem to him suffocating. The roar of the landslide hurtling down
the mountain-side in the night and the crack of a falling tree are
sounds that cause him no fear; he has been accustomed to them from
childhood.
Transylvania is a very rich country, though the greater number of
its inhabitants are poor. The ores to be found in its mountains are
wonderful, quite the richest in Europe, and many people, especially the
gipsies, earn a livelihood by desultory washing for gold in the rivers.
There are plains bordering the rivers where flocks and herds may be
fed. Horses are bred and exported annually in thousands. Salt occurs
in large quantities both in solution and sometimes in complete hills.
Every one who gets the chance should visit one of the salt mines, some
of which have been worked over a thousand years. The salt is so pure
that it can be hewed out in great blocks and cubes, and the air is full
of the dust which settles down in a fine white powdered frost like the
artificial frosting of a Christmas card.
Maize, wheat, rye and other cereals are grown in the valleys of
Transylvania, also vines, while fruits are abundant. A most interesting
land it is, both as to its peoples, its scenery, and its products, and
a land that is not half so much known as it deserves. Any one with
hardihood enough to explore Transylvania, knapsack on back, in the
simplest manner, would be well rewarded for the risks he ran.
A Hungarian writer says:
Those who travel on Transylvanian soil look with bated breath
on the fabulous colouring of the bewitching picture which
water, rocks, forest, mountain and valley, Alps gleaming white
with snow, present at every step, every phase of beauty being
represented, from the idyllic to the awe-inspiring majestic,
and with wonder they gaze at the wealth of natural treasures
and natural phenomena, some of which are wonderful both as
sights and as marvels of the cunning of nature. It is in the
Transylvanian Alps that we find the sources of the two mighty
rivers of that country, the Maros and the Olt, as well as of
the Szamos, the Kukullo, and the Aranyos.
It was in Kolozsvar that King Matthias was born, and there is in
his native town a magnificent equestrian statue of this one of the
best-loved of Hungarian kings, executed by John Fadrusz. The birthplace
of the King is now the Museum of the Transylvanian Carpathian Society.
Among the attractions of Transylvania are the Torda Glen, composed of
split rocks forming gigantic precipices falling down to a narrow stream
scarce six yards wide; the Government salt mines, from which 50,000
tons of salt are excavated every year; the forest resort of Borszék,
hundreds of feet above sea-level, with its mineral spring, from which
three million bottles are annually exported, and its healing baths; the
Gyilkos-tó (Murderous Lake) not far distant:
A smooth sheet of water about 600 metres long, and nowhere
exceeding 200 metres in breadth. The water is crystal-clear and
in places thirty to forty metres deep. The surroundings of the
lake are enchanting. To the east the Gyilkos-havas with its
mantle of dark green pines, to the north the huge rocky pile of
the Nagy-Czohárd stretches gleaming in red; while to the south
the Nagy-Hagymás lifts heavenwards its rocky head. The Lake is
a favourite haunt of trout. On the banks there is a tourists’
shelter.
The salt hill of Parajd is another sight.
It is steep and precipitous, its sides as white as snow, bright
as the finest polished marble of Carrara.
There are many other watering-places with mineral springs; one of the
most curious is at Kovásna, which stands at the foot of the wooded
hills separating Hungary and Roumania.
In the square a fine towered building attracts our attention.
Even if not pointed out to us the front of the structure
would tell us that this is one of the great natural wonders
of Transylvania. It is the Pokolsár (hell-mud). Within the
building a strange murmur is heard, like that of boiling
water. On entering a peculiar pungent smell greets us. A basin
divided in half by a plank wall stands before us, it is the
Pokolsár with its spouting, whirling, wheeling, boiling water.
From the wall of the basin with terrific force and in huge
volume, carbon dioxide pours forth and not only keeps the water
in continual undulation, but softens and crushes the clayey
slate that constitutes the wall of the basin and turns its
colour to an ashen grey. The water of the Pokolsár, like some
heaving volcano, at times overflows its basin and threatens to
inundate the surrounding country. It tears up the wooden floor
of the basin, vomits forth heavy stones and discharges volumes
of vapour, the development of gas is so large and rapid that
the choking fumes render it impossible to enter the building,
while birds flying above the bath fall lifeless into the water.
The water has a wonderful effect, especially in the case of
rheumatic disorders. It is an alkaline mineral water. There are
many mineral springs of the kind in the neighbourhood.
Another beauty spot is the lake of St. Anne, in the crater of an
extinct volcano, which is in circumference 1800 metres.
It can be seen that Transylvania is a country for those to visit
who love natural beauty and the wonders of nature and want to get
off the ordinary tourist track. The Circular Railway, which now
traverses it under State direction, makes this comparatively easy,
and the civilisation of the towns will astonish those who think of
Transylvania as still primitive.
In the north-east corner of the Dual Monarchy, to the north of
Transylvania, lies the large and important country of Galicia, a slice
of the now vanished kingdom of Poland, wiped off the map by the three
great powers surrounding her. Galicia is larger than Bohemia but lacks
picturesqueness of scenery, and is the least known of all the provinces
of the Austrian Empire. It is nearly all mountainous, the land falling
down from the Carpathians, which form the southern boundary, toward
Russia. The highest peaks are the Woman’s Mountain, 5648 feet, and the
Waxmundska, 7189 feet. The Vistula and the Dniester both rise in this
country, which lies outside the system of the Danube, to which so great
a part of the dominions of Franz Joseph belongs. There is a good deal
of traffic in light boats down the Dniester to Odessa. The people are
divided between Ruthenians (Red Russians) and Poles, the latter being
in the western part.
By the end of the eighteenth century Poland was in a miserable state of
decay and helplessness, and the proposal for her partition came from
Prussia. Catherine II., ruling in Russia at the time, was quite ready
to agree, Maria Teresa of Austria was doubtful and had many scruples
but was at length over-persuaded, and the treaty was signed in 1772.
Frederick II. of Prussia is said to have remarked of Maria Teresa,
“She is always weeping, but she is always taking,” which was cynical.
But the real truth is that Maria Teresa was unable to help herself.
Unless she had been in a position to fight her two powerful neighbours
single-handed she could hardly have prevented the spoliation, and she
may have thought by taking her share in Galicia she ensured at least
good government and justice for some of the unhappy Poles. However,
of all three nations it is Russia in reality who has done most for
her acquired subjects, and she has treated the peasants fairly well.
Probably the strong kinship of race and tongue, stronger than in
the case of either of the other nations, has helped to cement this
fragment. In Germany the native tongue is strenuously suppressed, and
grinding poverty reigns in many districts.
Up to the end of the eighteenth century Poland was still a powerful
kingdom and had a long history of worthy exploits behind her. The name
is derived from _polé_, meaning plain or field, as the greater part
of the kingdom lay low and flat. There is no place here to go into
the history of that kingdom, of which only a small part belongs to
Austria. But it may be shortly said that her kings have ruled often
well and wisely, and made a name for themselves in other fields than
that of war or administration. Her literary men, in spite of the
peculiarly difficult language which had to be used as a medium, have
made themselves known beyond the borders of their own country. Of all
her sons, John Sobieski is the one who stands out most clearly in the
sight of other nations. He was one of the best generals Poland ever
had, and in 1674 was elected king under the title of John III. His most
famous successes were against the Turks, and when in 1683 the Turkish
armies advanced on Vienna and Leopold the Emperor fled ignominiously,
it was Sobieski who rallied his troops together and proceeded to the
rescue. The Turks were besieging the city and assaulted it no less
than eighteen times while it was held by Count Strahrenburg. Sobieski
co-operated with Charles Duke of Lorraine, brother-in-law of the
Emperor, and appeared on the heights of Kablenburg. The two armies
met in a terrific encounter, and the Turks were badly beaten, leaving
twenty thousand men behind them. When all was safe Leopold returned to
his capital, but was jealous of the success of Sobieski, and showed it.
In a letter to his wife Sobieski speaks of this treatment:
Our people have been much annoyed and have loudly complained
because the emperor never deigned to thank them not even by a
bow for all their troubles and privations. They give us neither
forage nor provisions; our sick are lying on dunghills and our
many wounded cannot obtain a single boat to carry them down to
Pressburg, where I could more easily provide for them at my
own cost.... Many of our men, finding that they were dying of
hunger in the country, hurried to the town to find food; but
the commandant of Vienna had given orders that they should not
be allowed to enter, and that they should be fired on. After
this great battle in which we have lost so many members of our
most illustrious families, we are treated like plague-stricken
men, whom everyone must avoid.
The downfall of the Turks was the more crushing because they had been
accustomed to consider themselves invincible and appeared rather as a
conquering cavalcade than as those who were fighting their way through
a hostile country. One of their leaders on this occasion, the Vizier
Kara Mustapha, had a tent made of green silk, worked with gold and
silver and set with precious stones. The holy standard was carried
inside it. After the battle Sobieski sent the golden stirrup of the
Grand Vizier to his Queen, and the standard to the Pope. It is one of
the minor ironies of history that Leopold, who after this marvellous
delivery was chiefly occupied with minute points of etiquette, such as
whether he ought to receive the elected King of Poland on the right or
left side, should have been surnamed the Great!
[Illustration: CRACOW: BARBARAKAPELLE]
The chief reasons given for the fall of Poland are that she had no
natural boundaries of mountain or river, and that the three powerful
nations around her all wanted something she had got. This was
particularly the case with Prussia, who greatly coveted the outlet to
the sea by way of Dantzig. Another reason is that there was in Poland
no middle class, only the nobility, and the serfs far below them,
and out of touch; and it has been rightly said that the middle class is
the backbone of a nation.
The town of Cracow was exempted from the 1772 arrangement when Poland
was partitioned, and made a free town, but it was found to be a focus
of disturbance for all the dispossessed Poles who retained ideals
of liberty, and it had to be firmly stamped upon more than once.
Russia at first undertook the stamping, but as the town was in the
Austrian dominions this duty eventually fell to Austria, and she did
it effectually by annexing the rebellious town in 1846. This was not,
however, until she had had some trouble, having sent troops to quell
disturbances there, and having had the humiliation of seeing them
beaten off by the nobles of the Polish aristocracy. So cordially did
the serfs hate their masters that they even sided with the Austrians
against their own high-born countrymen, and it was by their help that
Austria maintained her position. In consequence of this the Emperor
abolished compulsory cartage and forced labour during harvest to reward
the peasants. The Galician peasants have by no means an easy time. In
very many cases they are paid by a proportion of the harvests reaped
and not in money. The place occupied in most countries by a stable
middle class is here filled up by large numbers of Jews, who have
bought the estates as they came on the market, and now grind down the
remuneration of the workers to the lowest figure. Were it not that the
peasants very often migrate into Germany for the summer months and
there earn enough to keep body and soul together for the winter, their
position would be worse than it is. Horse-breeding is a large industry
here, as in many other parts of the composite kingdom; petroleum is
found in great quantities, and there are salt and coal mines which give
occupation to many.
By the settlement of 1867 Galicia was given Home Rule, though deputies
are still sent to the Austrian Parliament. Cracow and Lembert are the
two principal towns. Cracow is a seat of a famous university, and a
statue of its greatest pupil, Copernicus, stands in the courtyard.
Copernicus received his education here, though he was a native of
Prussia. Lemberg also has a university.
The Ruthenians, who form so large a proportion of the Galicians, are a
Slav race; they mostly belong to the Greek church and so suffer doubly
under the domination of the Jews.
INDEX
Adelsburg, grottoes of, 149
Aggstein, 90
Agram, 188
Alföld, the, 51, 52
Andrassy, Count, 117
Armenians, 200
Arpad, House of, 9, 62
Aspern, 19
Attersee, 149
Austerlitz, 19
Austria, Emperor of, 18, 22
Austrians, the, 93, 94
Avisio, River, 175
Baden, 101
Badgastein, 150
Balaton, Lake, 55
Balaton-Füred, 56
Ban of Croatia, 186
Barlangliget, 45
Beauharnais, Eugène, 164
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 108
Belgrade, 127
Bohemia, 131 _et seq._
Bora, the, 189
Borszék, 203
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 190
Bosnians, 192
Botzen, 167, 170
Brenner Pass, 159, 167, 168
Brixen, 170
Budapest, 115
Buonaparte, 17, 18, 161, 185
Campo-Formio, Treaty of, 193
Carinthia, 147
Carnic Alps, 61, 149
Carniola, 148
Carpathian Mountains, 40 _et seq._
Charles VI., 15
Charles, Archduke, 19, 20
Cisalpine Republic, 17
Copernicus, 210
Cortuna, 175, 183
Cracow, 209, 210
Croatia-Slavonia, 186
Csallókoz, 114
Csepel, Island of, 124
Cserna, River, 60
Csorba, 44
Czechs, 69, 137
Dalmatia, 18, 19, 192
Danube, the, 82, 124 _et seq._
Danube Steam Navigation Company, 83
Deak, 34
Debreczen, 55, 113
Dévény, 112
Dinaric Alps, 149
Diocletian, Emperor, 193
Dobsina, 43
Dolomitenstrasse, 183
Dolomites, the, 61, 175 _et seq._
Drave, River, 82, 126
Dress, 73
Dual Monarchy, 3
Dürrenstein, 90
Dvorak, Anton, 145
Eisach, River, 170
Elector Palatine, 143
Elizabeth, Empress, 32 _et seq._
Englehardzell, 85
Enns, River, 87
Esterhazy family, 95, 96, 107, 110, 113
Ferdinand IV., 21
Fiume, 188
Francis II., 17, 18, 21
Francis (Franz) Joseph, 21, 31 _et seq._
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke, 39
Frederick III., 12
Galicia, 205 _et seq._
German emperors, 12, 14
Gipsies, 71
Glurns, 167
Gmunden, 149
Gorz, 151
Gran, 114
Gratz, 152
Great Glockner, 170
Greifenstein, 91
Grein, 87
Gyilkos-tó, 203
Hanover, 29
Hapsburg, House of, 4, 12, 14, 144
Haydn, Joseph, 106
Hegyalia, 49
Herculesfürdo, 60
Herzegovina. _See_ Bosnia
High Tátra, 44
Hofer, Andreas, 160, 164
Hohenlinden, 18
Holy Roman Empire, 8
Hradcany Palace, 141
Hungarians, 5, 7, 53, 62 _et seq._
Hungary, 3, 8, 22
Hunyadi, Janos, 10, 59
Huss, John, 137
Illyria, 184
Inn, River, 84
Innsbruck, 156, 163, 167
“Iron Gates,” 129
Ischl, 149
Jerome of Prague, 138
Jews, the, 72, 209
Jochenstein, 84
Joseph II., 16, 17
Julian Alps, 61, 149
Kahlenburg, 207
Kalocsa, 126
Kamárom. _See_ Komorn
Karawanken Alps, 151, 152
Karlovicz, 127
Kazan Pass, 128
Kecskemét, 55, 58
Kinsky, 141
Kiskaros, 126
Klosterneuberg, 91
Kolozsvar, 200, 202
Kolumbacz, 128
Komorn, 114
Königgratz. _See_ Sadowa
Kossuth, 22
Kovásna, 203
Kovic, Bos, 197
Krems, 91
Kubelik, 145
Ladislas, King, 10
Lauenburg, Duchy of, 23
Lembert, 210
Libussa, 134
Linz, 86
Liszt, Franz, 118
Löcse, 55
Lombardy, 17
Louis II., 13, 140
Luxembourg, King John of, 137
Mack, General, 19
Magyars. _See_ Hungarians
Marengo, 18
Margaret (Maultasch) “Pocket Mouth,” 159
Maria Teresa, Queen, 15, 206
Marie Antoinette, 16
Marmolata, Mount, 175
Mátra Mountains, 46
Matthias, King, 10, 11
Maximilian I., 157
Maximilian, Archduke, 39
Meran, 170
Metternich, Count, 20
Millstättersee, 150
Mohács, 126
Mohács, battle of, 13
Mölk, monastery of, 89
Mondsee, 149
Moravia, 133, 145
Mozart, Wolfgang, 102
Napoleon. _See_ Buonaparte
Neuhaus, 86
Noric Alps, 61, 149
Observation cars, 155, 198
Orsova, 60, 129
Orteler Spitze, 61
Ostler Alp, 167
Ottakar II., 134
Otto the Bavarian, 9
Palatine, Elector, 143
Parajd, 203
Passau, 84
Persenbeug, 89
Peterwardein, 126
Petöfi, Alexander, 66, 120, 126
Podebrad, George of, 139
Poland, 205, 206, 208
Poprad, 43
Population (Austria-Hungary), 7
Population (Hungary), 72
Pöstyén, 45
Pozsony. _See_ Pressburg
Prague, 137, 141, 144
Premsyl dynasty, 133
Pressburg, 16, 19, 113
Pusterthal, 160, 170
Ragusa, 195
Railway travelling, 57
Rhaetian Alps, 61, 149
Richard I. (of England), 90
Rosengarten, 179
Roumanians, 70, 79
Rudolph, Prince, 35
Rudolph of Hapsburg, 135
Ruthenians, 205, 210
Sadowa, 25
St. Florian, 87
St. Stephen, 8
Salzburg, 19, 102, 149
Salzburg Alps, 149
Save River, 83, 127
Saxons, 200
Schleswig-Holstein, 23
Schneiderschlossel, 85
Schönbrunn Palace, 99
Schönbrunn, Peace of, 20
Schubert, Franz Peter, 110
Sevcik, 145
“Seven Weeks’ War, The,” 23
Slavonia. _See_ Croatia
Slavs, 7, 69, 146
Slovaks, 146
Sobieski, John, 207, 208
Spalato, 193
Stelvio Pass, 167
Sterzing, 169
Strauss, Johann, 100
Strudel, 88
Styria, 152
Széchenyi, Count Stephen, 118, 122, 123, 129
Szeged, 55, 58, 76
Szeklers, 200
Tátra Füred, 44
Temes, River, 127
Temesvar, 55, 59
Theiss, River, 82, 126, 127
Thurn, Count, 141
Tilly, Marechal, 87
Tillysberg, 87
Tisza. _See_ Theiss
Tokay, 49
Torda Glen, 203
Toroczko, 77
Transylvania, 14, 77, 199, 201
Trieste, 193, 197
Triple Alliance, 30
Turks, 9, 13, 14, 15, 207, 208
Tyrol, the, 19, 20, 61, 154 _et seq._, 166, 177
Tyrol, Counts of, 159
Tyrolese, the, 171
Tyrolese Alps, 61
Ulm, 19
Vág River, 42
Valerie, Archduchess, 35, 34
Vienna, 17, 19, 28, 92 _et seq._
Villach, 151
Vodnik, 185
Von Moltke, Count, 24
Wachau, the, 91
Wagram, 20
Wallach women, 79
Wallachs, 70, 200
Waterloo, 21
Waxmundska, 205
Weiteneck, 89
Wenceslaus, King, 136
Wends, 189
“Winter King, the,” 143
Wirbel, 88
Wocheiner See, 151
Woman’s Mountain, 205
Worth, Island of, 88
Ybbs, River, 89
Zsdjar, 77
THE END
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
[Illustration:
SKETCH MAP ACCOMPANYING “AUSTRIA-HUNGARY” BY G. E. MITTON.
PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK, LONDON.
]
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
The illustration on page 38 is the musical score for the Austrian
National Anthem. An audible version of it is included with the Project
Gutenberg files for this ebook.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
references.
Possible spelling/diacritical errors (none were changed):
Page 36: eightieth decade → eighth decade
Page 85: Englehardzell → Engelhartszell
Page 117: Andrassy → Andrássy
Page 118: Laszlo → László
Page 120: Petöfi → Petőfi
Page 122: Janos → János
Page 123: Wesselenyi → Wesselényi
Page 126: Zürr → Türr
Page 133: Premsyl → Přemysl
Page 145: Smetaud → Smetana
Page 150: udbahn → Südbahn
Page 115: O-Buda → Ó-Buda