Salonta

Útvonaltervező

Information

Salonta (Hungarian: Nagyszalonta) is a city and municipality in Bihor county, Romania with a population of 18,137 (as of 2002), made up of Hungarians (57.3%), Romanians (40.1%), Roma (2.1%), Germans (0.4%), and other (0.5%). Its sister cities are Békéscsaba and Sarkad.

History

The city was first documented in 1214 under the name of Zolotna and in 1332 a Papal document used the name Zalanta and starting 1587 the Hungarian spelling Szalonta was used.

Until the 16th century, it was only a small village which had about 300 inhabitants and was on the land of the Toldi family. A bigger city was the fort of Culiser, which was however destroyed by the Turks in 1598.

Culiser was never rebuilt and Salonta began to have a more important role in the region after in 1606, the prince of Transylvania, Stephan Bocskai settled here 300 soldiers which were appropriated with land. They build their own farms, but however had to keep their arms ready to repel an eventual attack of the Turks. 3 June, the day in which the soldiers were settled here was nowadays declared "the day of the city".

Renown Hungarian 19th Century poet, János Arany, was born and lived in Salonta for most of his life. Lajos Zilahy, another noted Hungarian author, was also born in Salonta (at that time known as Nagyszalonta and in Hungary) on 27 March 1891.

Trivia

The city of Salonta is the host for the 2006 Romanian National Gliders Championship (Campionat naţional de aeromodelism) and its team, Metalul Salonta, has won the campionship several years.