The more I learned about Satu Mare in the 20th century, the more I believed it had suffered from a terrible run of luck. The dreadful situation Satu Mare found itself in on multiple occasions seemed unique. Surely this was the only time in Satu Mare’s history that it found itself repeatedly in the crosshairs of history. When I took a deeper dive into the city’s history, I discovered that Satu Mare had been through other tumultuous times, one of which occurred with alarming frequency. Learning this taught me just how much upheaval can be found in history if you are willing to dig deep enough.
Szatmar Castle – Island fortress
Invasive Species – Wave After Wave
The violence and chaos that occurred in Satu Mare from 1918 to 1945 was exceptional, but not unprecedented. There have been other calamitous times in the city’s history. In some of those cases Satu Mare was the target, rather than collateral damage. Invasions led to devastation and occupation. Such cases are not well known for a simple reason, they occurred hundreds of years ago and are obscured by more recent cataclysms. Satu Mare’s deeper past led me to wonder why it was prone to upheaval on numerous occasions. First and foremost, the city is not unique in the annals of Eastern European history. The region has suffered wave after wave of invasions by outside forces attempting to assert control. The invaders had a habit of sweeping all that stood before them. The Hungarians were successful in doing this at the end of the 9th century. Three and a half centuries later, they were on the receiving end of another rampaging horde.
The Mongol Invasion in 1241-1242 stormed across Hungary, killing half the population. Along the way it obliterated Satu Mare. This was the beginning of a recurring trend, where Satu Mare (then known as Szatmar) was threatened by invaders from all points of the compass. Germans from the north and west, the Ottoman Turks from the south, and Soviets from the east. Satu Mare, much like the rest of Eastern Europe, does not have easily defensible frontiers. This leaves it open to attack. The Carpathian Basin is exposed from all sides. In military terms, it is always best to hold high ground. Those who inhabit basins are at a disadvantage. Armies have repeatedly found Satu Mare a target too good to pass up.
Satu Mare also suffered at the hands of invaders due to its location on a regional fault line during the 16th and 17th centuries. The city was located at a tripoint where the border of Royal (Habsburg) Hungary, Transylvania, and Ottoman occupied Hungary collided. This fact has been lost to all but history. So much time has passed since then that it is easy to forget just how violent these borderlands were four hundred years ago. The border between the Ottoman occupied areas and Hungary-Croatia stretched for a thousand kilometers. A vast and lawless no man’s land where banditry, massacres, and slave raiding were rife. Skirmishes, battles, and full-scale wars were fought along the border. These bitter struggles were marked by depopulation and despoliation of the landscape.
Keeping the powder dry – Szatmar Castle
Collision Course – Szatmar Castle
For any place to have a chance of survival in such a brutal environment it had to be heavily fortified. Satu Mare used to have one of the strongest castles in Eastern Europe. The reputation of Szatmar Castle is such that even today, it warrants numerous mentions in Hungarian museums. For the longest time, I wondered where Szatmar Castle was located and if it could be visited. That is impossible since it was destroyed in the early 18th century. What a sight Szatmar Castle must have been. The castle was surrounded on several sides by the Somos (Szatmar) River. The marshy terrain and stout defensive works made it extremely difficult for enemy armies to take it. That never stopped them from trying to subdue it on multiple occasions. Those efforts sometimes met with success. The prize of holding such a strongly fortified work at an important strategic junction made it worth an attempt. This was an opportunity few armies could pass up.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Hungary was caught in a life-or-death struggle for its existence not only with the Ottoman Turks, but also the Habsburgs who took it upon themselves to help Hungary’s cause by taking a large swath of it under their control. The three-way fight between Hungarians, Habsburgs (with a sizable proportion of Hungarians aligned with them), and the Turks put Szatmar Castle at the center of the military fight for supremacy. Though west of the Carpathians, Szatmar Castle guarded the entrance to Transylvania which was autonomous during this time. Battles for the castle ensued between the Habsburgs, Turks, and Hungarians (both from Upper Hungary and Transylvania). It was also of prime economic importance because the lucrative salt trade from the nearby mine at Deskana flowed through Szatmar.
Military forces clashed multiple times as they battled to take the stronghold. The most intense period occurred from 1645 to 1691. On at least nine occasions Hungarian, Turkish, Habsburg, and Polish military forces were involved in attacks on Szatmar Castle. The castle changed hands five times during that period. Only when the Habsburgs emerged as the final victors in the early 18th century did Szatmar find peace. By that time, tens of thousands had lost their lives. The 20th century was a terrible time for Satu Mare, the latter half of the 17th century matched it.
Staking Claims – Depopulation & Repopulation
Hungarian territory was so depopulated by perpetual warfare during the Ottoman occupation (1526 – 1686) that after it was reconquered, the Habsburgs settled Swabians, Serbs, Slovaks, and Romanians throughout the Kingdom of Hungary. The percentage of Hungarians compared to other ethnic groups was irreparably altered. This would come back to haunt Hungary in the Treaty of Trianon when those groups were able to claim a share of Hungarian territory. The seeds of separation for the lost lands of historic Hungary were sown by the interminable fighting over places like Szatmar. Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians died fighting for their soil in the 16th and 17th century. The upshot was that in the 20th century other ethnic groups would take it. This history goes some way in explaining how Szatmar became Satu Mare.
Coming soon: Dreams & Nightmares – The Journey To Berehove (The Lost Lands #14)