Nagyenyed

Fortress of
Nagyenyed

The Bethlen
College

Monument of
student heroes

The two Willows
at Nagyenyed

NAGYENYED During the Roman Empire, an outpost called Brucle stood in the area where Nagyenyed (Aiud, Rumania today) is now. In the Middle Ages, Nagyenyed became an important commercial and wine producing center; the wine cellars had a whole network around the town. In the 16th century, Nagyenyed held several diets (sessions of parliaments), and in 1564, here was declared the split between the Saxon Evangelical and the Hungarian Calvinist (i.e., Presbyterian) churches.
In 1658, a mixed Tartar-Turkish army cracked down on Nagyenyed; in 1704 Habsburg troops wreaked havoc on the town. Between 1784 and 1848, Nagyenyed was the center of the Reformed (i.e., Presbyterian) Archdiocese.
During the Hungarian Liberation Fight of 1848, the Rumanian population of Transylvania sided the Habsburgs and turned against the first nation Hungarians. Since November 1848, while Hungary was fighting her life-and-death battle for independence, terrorist Rumanian troops, lead by Axente Sever, Avram Iancu, Prodán Probu, were going on killing sprees in Transylvania, also in Nagyenyed. On January 8, 1849, after they forced the terrified Hungarian population to sign the statement of loyalty to the Habsburg throne, they killed 800 innocent civilian Hungarians. The Rumanian attackers ousted the rest of the Hungarians to the cold empty fields, in the clothes they had just on, and continued to devastate Nagyenyed until November 11.
They looted and burned the Bethlen College, too, and took a great care to destroy only the precious, old documents revealing the history of the Hungarians in Transylvania. Apparently, they had the expertise, since Axente Sever studied theology and Avram Iancu was a lawyer, they were not just a simple mob. (It is worth to mention that, to "honour their achievements", Axente Sever and Avram Iancu received prizes, such as the Golden Cross from the Habsburg emperor, and the Saint Anna Cross from Michael, the Russian tzar. But it did not take them long to turn against their Austrian lords, either. In a short while, the Habsburg authorities arrested both of them, Avram Iancu was physically assaulted seriously, but later both released. Later, Avram Iancu went insane, and he was seen for years wandering aimlessly in the Rumanian mountains blowing a recorder. Axente Sever died as a quiet retired pensioner in Brassó).
On the wall, right to the entrance of the fortress of Nagyenyed, a small plaque remembers the 800 slaughtered innocent Hungarians who are buried under this plaque.
The church of Nagyenyed was fortified as a result of the first Ottoman (Turkish) attacks on Hungary, starting in the 15th century. The walls of the fortress of Nagyenyed has 7 bastions. During wartime periods, the defense duty of every bastion was assigned to a designated group of shop holders of the town, such as the shoe-makers, black-smiths, tailors, etc., who put their insignia on the bastion wall for recognition. The one-nave building of the Reformed (i.e., Presbyterian) fortress church was built in the 15th century in gothic style; the 65-meter-high tower was modified to function as a tower of a fortress, having gun-slots on the walls.
The famous Bethlen College was found in 1662, and was originally in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), but because of the increasing Turkish attacks on Hungary, Mihály Apafi (1661-1690), the Hungarian governor of Transylvania, moved the college to Nagyenyed, where he had large land properties. The college had faculties of philosophy, law and Protestant theology. Sponsored by the foundations raised by the Hungarian governors of Transylvania, poor but talented Székelys were educated here. Gábor Bethlen made it a law to admit talented youth coming from serfhood to the college. The college had such great teachers as Benedek Ilosvai or János Apáczai Csere, and among the student, who became famous were Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, the Orientalist, Farkas Bólyai, the mathematician, Lajos Áprily, the poet, and András Sütő, today's author.
In 1704, during the Rákóczi Liberation Fight (1704-1711) Habsburg troops devastated Nagyenyed, with it, the Bethlen College, too. The students heriocally defended their beloved college, and 14 of them died during the atrocities. A very nice prosaic work by Hungarian author Mór Jókai, titled A nagyenyedi két fűzfa (Engl. The two willows at Nagyenyed) tells about the touching story of the student heroes of the Bethlen College, who loved their school so much that they were ready to give their lives for it.
In 1849, during the Hungarian Liberation Fight of 1848, the building of the college was left as a bunt-out ruin in ashes. It was rebuilt in 1862. Precious donations, such as a large library, collection of ancient stones, artifacts from the Roman age, 3000 stuffed birds and 60,000-piece herbal collection enriched the the treasures of the college. Today, the building is a museum.