Transylvania

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The land we know as Transylvania has been called many names, each an attempt to capture a fraction of its rich and complex essence.

‘Terra ultra silvam’, or ‘the land beyond the forest’, is the name we find in some documents. The ‘forest’ in question is most probably the dense woodland of the Apuseni mountains, separating Transylvania from the land of the Hungarians. The name kept changing, morphing into ‘Ultrasilvania’ and the like, until it eventually appeared in Hungarian documents as ‘Transsilvania’.

It was also known as ‘Septum urbium’ or ‘Septemcastris’, meaning ‘Seven Towns’ or ‘Seven Castles’ – a name alluding to the seven main fortified towns of the region. None of them, however, has a fortress that could rival Svartrau’s Greifberg castle.