Transylvanian Towns [antikvár]

I .t is general to compare Transylvania with Switzerland. Three different nationalities, three different languages and three different cultures live together in dose neighbourhood since about thousand years amidst their mountains. Besides Transylvania, this Eastern Helvetia, is a country of towns too. The jagged geographical situation of Transylvania's interior, the meeting and mingling of different cultures and the break of the enormous tides of history in the Transylvanian basin have divided the landscape into small units, and similar to the same the towns the centres of these have developed characteristics of their own and their spirits emanate distinctive individualities. The towns of Transylvania seen with Western-European eyes are but quaint nooks situated outside the network of world-trade, devoid of developed industries, lacking famous architectural remains and widely known works of art. Their prosperity belongs to the past. Nevertheless their greatest values, their individual spirit and the institutions to maintain the same, are carefully guarded and cultivated still today. The Transylvanian towns are college towns, their names call back to famous cultural institutions and their inner spiritual substance is projected on the exterior of the towns. Hungarians and Saxons were the founders of the towns (Roumanians settled later, Balazsfalva founded in the 18th century and today still of minor importance is the only foundation of the later). The stones of the buildings are imbued with the desires, the ideals, and the bitter-sweet memories of the struggles of the centuries; and when they