In contradiction with the traditional perception of city history, that examines the city within its own circle, mainly from the point of view of its legal history, the more modern tendency, influenced by sociology, geography and population history, highlights the standpoints of the social history of a city's civilization, putting an emphasis on the functions of the city and its relationship to the region. Especially the method of the French Annales-School exercised a greater influence, which is felt mostly in I. Braudel's works. The bibliography was influenced by Ferenc Erdei's early writings, and among them: "The City and its Surroundling" and "Hungarian City", which proved to be useful readings till today.
The author of these lines has been interested for quite a while, in the history of urbanization in Transylvania and the roles and functions played by certain cities. Having done enough research in this field, it was easy to come to the conclusion, that among all the other Transylvanian cities, Kolozsvár had the most central function, and thus, this city attracted a large part of the population of Transylvania, especially Hungarians.
1. The first period of the city of Kolozsvár, that was established in the early Middle Ages on the banks of the Small-Szamos River, at the coming together of three regional units, Szilágyság, Mezôség and the Transylvanian Érchegység – very different from one another – can be placed between the Conquest and the Tartars' Invasion in 1241. The world 'vár' in the name of the city means 'fortress', which expresses its protecting function paired up with an administrative one, meaning the center of the 'Kolozs' region.
The nucleus and the internal order of the medieval fortress were destroyed by the Tartars. The devastation was total, however, due to its potential and the city-developing policies of the Hungarian kings, it was relatively soon rebuilt to such an extent that King Róbert Károly (King Charles Robert) declared it 'a city' already in 1316 (civitas Kulusvar) and gave it privileges.
We are not talking about legal changes, for the city had several other functions beside the legal ones: the needs of the growing population were provided for by the new craft industry and trading. We mention only briefly that the Saxon community, that was settled in as immediate neighbor of the Hungarian population, had a substantial role in the spreading of the craft industry. Industry and trade formed the basis of the city's further growth. It is certain that the industrial and trade activities, mentioned in the sources, went over the city limits. King Lajos Nagy (King Louis the Great) empowered the merchants of Kolozsvár with rights that permitted them to sell without taxation in the main part of Transylvania. Proof of the city's vivid development is King Zsigmond's (King Sigismund) decree from 1405, which made Kolozsvár a 'free royal city', and ordered that the city, that had grown out of the old fortress, be surrounded by new fortress walls.
Because of, and with all the above, Kolozsvár became an urban settlement of an outstanding importance, with the right to its own autonomy and internal order.
When King Mátyás (King Matthias) reinforced its earlier privileges, and gave the city new ones as well, its fame and attractiveness grew. What also increased its rank was that its population successfully developed a 'big city like' and well functioning city center. One of the greatest experts in this issue, Károly Kós, who also contributed to the functions of the contemporary city-scape, was unable to solve an enigma: after the invasion of the Tartars, the people of the city coming together from different regions, were able to develop, on the margins of the European culture, an almost geometrically perfect system of space and streets, a city system more perfect than any other one known to us, which, without any alteration or change, could fulfill its functional duties throughout the centuries. This architectural – city design – complex, with the St. Michael Church in its center is in fact the most valuable historical heritage of the city.
The city kept on growing impetuously in the time of the Principality of Transylvania. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the thirty existing guilds represented and produced for sixty industrial branches, among these the goldsmith's trade, cultivated on such artistic level, that brought to another name of the city; 'full of treasures'. And on the intellectual and cultural level, the city was rising with ease during the Reformation. It became a center for religious disputes and church organizational meetings – this was when the Unitarian religion and church were born, and those religous schools were established, that later produced the 'kollégiums', boarding schools and colleges, on the level of quality higher education. In addition to these, we can not forget about the university – even if for a short time-, that was connected to István Báthory's name, and the city's printing house, established in the middle of the 16th century. All of these made Kolozsvár the cultural center, that contemporaries called 'the first city of Transylvania'. ('civitas primaria Transylvaniae') In that time, it meant a certain standing to be a citizen of Kolozsvár.
The rising stage of Kolozsvár's history suddenly ended in the middle of the 17th century. The causes were the devastations of the wars and the change that occured in its strategic position.
After the fall of Várad, Kolozsvár became a feud-positon: for the Turkish regime, that spread to the Transylvanian border. Thus, the city's protecting function strengthened again.
Kolozsvár's declining era did not end with the expulsion of the Turks from Hungary, because the Habsburg Regime, that was just settling in on the territory of Transylvania and Hungary, did not provide favorable conditions. The change occurred only when the 'Gubernium' (Office of Governor-General of Transylvania) moved back from the rival Nagyszeben to Kolozsvár. After that, the National Assembly (with the exception of only one time) held its sessions in this city. Thus, Kolozsvár officially became the capital of Transylvania, and began to exercise all those functions, that belonged to this status.
The city's historian, Elek Jakab, after having examined an enormous amount of historical source-materials, came to the conclusion, that the new function financially led to prettier architecture, the paving of the roads and central squares, the cleaning of the city center; while organizing the police force led to better order and greater neatness.
On the intellectual level, higher education was given a strong impetus, as the numerous educated and new wealthy population, as if by magic, developed a more advanced society and a more civilized social life. This put Kolozsvár on the track of a higher culture, giving it the possibility to become the political and social center of different parts of Transylvania, and to regain its so well-known prestige in the time when Transylvania was ruled by the national princes.
The settling in of a great number of aristocrat families, a substantial number of the 'Gubernium'-clerks, the increasing number of intellectuals and civil elements, and the economic growth in the Reform Era, launched the process of urbanization and civilization. Kolozsvár's attractiveness was increased by the Hungarian theater performances (1792), and later, by the establishment of the permanent theater. The more and more prestigous press increased the city's political role. The beginnings of the press go back to earlier times in Kolozsvár ("Hungarian Herald of Transylvania", "Transylvanian Museum"), but the newspaper publishing becomes permanent only in the Reform Era. The "Home Courier", founded in 1827 by Ferenc Kisszántói Pethe, changed its name one year later to "Transylvanian Courier", and because Sámuel Méhes, an open-minded thinker, a never resting cultural organizer, became its editor in 1831, the paper turned into the loudspeaker of the Reform Era in Transylvania. In order to conduct this activity more effectively, he published subsidiary newspapers: the "Sunday Newspaper" and the "National Conversationalist", which he edited together with the historian István Nagyajtai Kovács. The former was the first Hungarian educational paper, the later met more scientific demands. All three papers paid a great role in the reform period of the civil-national organization of the Hungarians in Transylvania.
It shouldn't be a surprise, that the ideas of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution got a warm reception in Kolozsvár, from where they spread all over Transylvania, after they had been altered a little to fit the specific conditions of this society. When the union was accepted, Kolozsvár lost its role as a capital, however, it hoped for a brighter 'big-city' future, which was made possible by faster civil progress.
Unfortunately, this hope had to be buried for two decades because of the Habsburg Monarchy. Still Kolozsvár's history wasn't only a succession of losses between 1848–1867: the Reform Era and the 1848 Revolution successfully moved so many potential forces, that the city was able to continue to develop even under the very hard financial and political circumstances of the monarchy.
We should consider the fact that Count Imre Mikó initiated the reorganization of the "Economic Society of Transylvania" in 1854, founded in 1844, and the foundation of the "Museum Society of Transylvania" in 1859. These two societies displayed an outstanding activity giving a new impulse to Transylvania's economic and intellectual, as well as scientific life, after the Compromise of 1867, followed by the Dualistic Era. Between the two world wars, these societies served as real retreats for the historical heritage of the Hungarians from Transylvania. It didn't come as a surprise, that the establishing communist regime hurriedly terminated their activity.
2. During the Compromise, Kolozsvár's population, numbered 16,638 people according to the census, mostly of Hungarian nationality in 1870. This put the city on the 13th place in the city-hierarchy of Hungary, determining its third place in Transylvania. This population was almost all lower middle class; big part of it worked in small enterprises, in small-scale industries and handy-craft-industries. If we add to this that 30% of its adult population declared themselves farmers (the Hostats), we see a provincial picture of the city with such great past, showing only few signs of the industrial revolution.
But it would be unfair not to mention its great potential cultural-intellectual power, its boarding schools and colleges, many other schools, its theater and opera, the large number of its ouststanding intellectuals. In spite of its difficult situation during the absolutism, Kolozsvár remained the central city of Transylvania and espcially of the Hungarians, a role that the city would never want to give up. Therefore, more and more intellectuals were interested in the present and especially the future of this great city.
This keen interest is reflected also in László Kôváry's meditations, who, by the way, was perhaps Kolozsvár's most conscientious citizen, who played a leading role in many economic initiatives and urbanistic movements. With the Compromise the city lost its role as a capital, but it did not turn into a provincial town in the literal sense of the word, because it remained still the center of a large number of institutions that were spreading out to all, or at least to the major parts of Transylvania. This was also facilitated by the Hungarian governing politics, which tried to make up for the city's lost status. A certain improvement of its financial situation was undoubtedly linked to the beginning of the construction of the railroads in Transylvania, the opening of the Transylvanian railroad lines, and the establishment of some other infrastructural factors.
The Nagyvárad-Kolozsvár-Brassó railroad line was among the first to get approved between 1867–1873. Kolozsvár, as the center for the railroad constructions, had a very important role, because a large number of people came to the city and settled down temporarily here. The Nagyvárad-Kolozsvár line was soon completed, and on September 7th, 1870, it officially opened to the public. This connected the city to the railroad system of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Europe. In the following years, the Brassó-line and other branch-lines were completed which stretched the boundaries of its attraction Eastward. Through its railroad lines, the city was given access to certain regions, where people were still living in an untouched world, almost on the level of natural economy. Of course, new worries occurred, caused by the insufficiencies of the railroad system; the large Mezôség and Szilágyság became isolated from Kolozsvár which was unfavorable for both the city and the two regions. The fact, that Szeklérland stayed outside the railroad system, had serious consequences, because the Szeklers were able to reach the larger central cities, especially Kolozsvár and Nagyenyed, only with major difficulty and by paying very high prices. Kolozsvár, however, profited a lot from being a railroad management center for the region, to which 574 stations and stops belonged. Plus, soon a railway service station was established in the city, that employed many clerks and workers. (A whole district was born: Railroad Street, Mechanic Street, Conductor Street.)
Kolozsvár's political-economic life was strengthened by its developing credit economy, as the credit and savings banks entered into business relations with faraway regions. (The principal factors, that determined the architectural character of Kolozsvár's center, have always been the large bank palaces built around the turn of the century.) The city's industrialization was not speedy, but it met the standards of its time; as a result, when World War I. broke out, the city housed 2,800 small- and large- scale industrial units, and 42 of them could be considered factories.
In spite of its economic growth – and we have to really emphasize this – the Kolozsvár of our times turned neither into an industrial city (as did Brassó, Temesvár, Arad, etc.), nor into a commercial center (as did Nagyvárad). Kolozsvár stayed a multifunctional city, and it was its scientific and artistic life that made it famous, more than it was its economy.
The city made a big step forward in science and education, and on the road to urbanization in the second half of the past century. In many historians opinion to whom belongs László Makkai, who was familiar with Kolozsvár's history, the city lost its role as a capital, however, at the same time, it became an intellectual center. According to Makkai, with its twenty-two churches (Roman Catholic, Reformed, Unitarian, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Lutheran and Jewish), seventy-seven schools, libraries and many scientific institutions "it remained the intellectual capital, that had never been a provincial town in the usual disparaging sense of the word". It had prestigious scientific institutions; among them, the already mentioned "Transylvanian Museum-Society" that plugged Kolozsvár into the Hungarian and Central-European scientific circuit. Its "Agricultural Institute" (1869) through the instructions of agricultural experts, acquired influence all over Transylvania, as well as its "University of Arts and Sciences" (1872), which among other things, with the development of the medical science and therapy, increased Kolozsvár's attractiveness (the buildings of its clinics standing even today). We also have to mention its "Academy of Commerce", which educated well-trained political-economists and economy experts. Besides, the city became center for many associations, that expanded all over Transylvania, like the "Association for Hungarian Public Education and General Culture in Transylvania" (1885), "The Kárpát Society of Transylvania" (1891), "The Literary Society of Transylvania" (1888), and others.
This was also the time for the implantations of the accomplishments of modern civilization in the life of the city. And so, in 1870, the gas-light was introduced, and by the last decade of the 19th century, the telephone center, the water company, then, in 1906, the electric company were built.
All these drew a large number of people from the villages, that triggered a lot of tension. "The native population is growing in number – wrote László Kôvári, Kolozsvár's statistical historian – the village is more and more invading the city. First of all, everybody is shouting for a home to live in, and secondly, the ever-growing population is shouting for work, that is, occupation." And, because neither of the two could be solved in a systematic fashion, very soon, people tried to solve the situation as they could, by themselves. As a result, a number of suburban workers' and clerks' colonies were built.
The newcomers' adjustment into the city society didn't take place smoothly. Especially not because, as Károly Békésy wrote in his "The Economic Past and Present of Kolozsvár", the several social layers of the city" are separated by an almost oriental mentality". This separatist mentality, this seclusion, which perhaps still carried the conscious traces of feudalism, was also visible in the structure of the city's social organizations: the famous "Gentlemen's Casino" belonged to the aristocrats, the "Kolozsvár Circle" belonged to the teachers and the elite white-collar workers, and the "Industrial Society" to the well-to-do craftsmen. The young craftsmen's 'self-educating union' describes its own role in its name, as does that of the young merchants. The industrial workers gathered in specialized and trade unions. Only the church represented the institution that gathered the different social ranks of the population for several activities, where all kinds of people were able to be together.
"Those left outside the circle" tried to find their peers from their own regions and villages, and moved in the same neighborhoods, thus trying to maintain the old forms of their neighborhood structures in the city.
A village in the city?
Yes, István Imre discovered a village hiding in a city, in the structure of the 18th century Kolozsvár. The same picture presented itself in the sources decribing the situation in the 19th century. The difference was only that, while in the 18th century the villages, swallowed by the city, and the 'Hostát people' took shelter in the city, 100 years later, the villagers, moving in, together with the 'Hostát people', formed village-like units in the city. This intermingled picture of city and village is present also on the Promenade: there had to pass a long time, until the urban civilization could erase the village customs, and make those settling in take off their traditional outfits.
By the turn of the century, on holidays and Sundays, it was customary that everyone showed up on the wide, pretty looking Promenade in the city park. The aristocrats and upper-middle-class just drove by in their coaches, but the common people spent hours there. Békésy noticed that by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, more and more young Szeklers showed up in their traditional costumes in the streets and on the Promenade. They "gather, time and time again, at dances and parties". The Szeklers settled in suburbs outside the city, and had their own streets.
Kalotaszeg was present in Kolozsvár with its maids, dressed in colorful traditional clothing, thus taking away the first place from Torockó, that was known earlier to send its girls to the city. More colors were added to this picture by the arrival of the Romanian girls from Naszód and Hátszeg, although these regions were not among the most attracted to Kolozsvár.
What this city really attracted was the Móc region, which provided Kolozsvár with home and industrial tools. The Armenians still maintained certain characteristics, and so did the Jews coming from Bukovina, Galícia and parts of Transylvania and settling down in Kolozsvár. Still, the process of urbanization gradually overshadowed the village hiding in Kolozsvár together with its villagers.
World War I. found Kolozsvár, which, by that time, was well marked on the list of the cities of Central-Europe, in this particular stage of its development and transformation.
3. The period between the two world wars is characterized by the large-scale moving of the Romanians into the city. In 1910, the population of Kolozsvár numbered 7,562 Romanians, which number in 1931 increased to 34,836. In contrast, the number of Hungarians hardly increased according to the census: 50,704 in 1910 and 54,776 in 1931. The Hungarians of Kolozsvár and the entire Transylvania suffered a substantial loss with the closing-down of their "University of Sciences and Arts", and by losing a number of jobs in the state and municipal offices.
The Romanian expansion also meant that they, too, began to consider Kolozsvár their undeclared capital of Transylvania. At the same time, Kolozsvár remained the Hungarians's central city, playing a predominant role in the life of their small-, and large- scale industries, as well as their skilled laborers'. Its central intellectual function was assured by its century old Hungarian religious schools and the Hungarian cultural institutions. And its Hungarian press acquired an outstanding role in their national self-organization and self-guard of interests. Briefly: although certain political power changes occurred, the Hungarians tried to maintain their positions in Kolozsvár.
These supporting pillars discussed above weakened with the nationalizations, executed by the communist regime just settling in after World War II. Losing their personal properties and social assets, the Hungarians became defenseless in the Romanian communist state.
In the first years they were lucky to have the "Bolyai University of Arts and Sciences". In the years of the 'cadre-management politics', that seemed to be interested, at least a little, in the "balancing" of the ethnic composition of the population, the Hungarians were able to occupy several positions of state and city offies. Sadly enough, everything was taken again away, with all they had before, in the accomplished stage of the dictatorship, and thus the Hungarians' defenselessness became total. Political persecutions, imprisonments made up the essence of this regime all along the communist era. And the destruction that took place in the general thinking and moral behavior presented a loss equal to, if not larger than the one suffered financially.
4. What is going to happen next?
This is a torturing daily question. In December 1989, we escaped from a certain kind of oppression. But soon, its place was taken by another kind of oppression, which didn't prove less dangerous. As a result, the Hungarian population of Kolozsvár lost its strength in the absolute and relative sense of the word. It is unnecessary to refer here to the exodus as a consequence of pressure. It is also well-known to everyone, that the Hungarians' material funds (if any) are not sufficient for the structural framing of the civil society. Honestly, the Hungarians of Kolozsvár are turning into proletarians, falling back into poverty (much more than the Romanians, a thin layer of whom has rapidly gotten very rich; see the owners of the rising palaces).
Plus, we can't forget the fact that, in the last 50 years, Kolozsvár suffered an urbanistic deterioration, which continues today combined with industrial destruction. There is also a social and ethnic tension, planted and instigated intentionally. With all these, we still can't deny that Kolozsvár has stayed, and is a city with many important functions even today, and owns such public institutions that carry in themselves conditions for the city's possible rise. Culturally and intellectually, it is, perhaps, still "civitas primaria Transylvaniae", or at least "primus inter pares".
And as far as the Hungarians are concerned?
The Hungarian population of Kolozsvár, according to the figures of the last census, is still about 80,000 (and among the Transylvanian cities, only Marosvásárhely has more Hungarians). And this means power. The future of the Hungarians in the city may depend on their ability to organize themselves as a community, to undertake their responsability fo a longer time, and also on their strong Hungarian conscientiousness that could protect them from assimilation. Their conscious and material state will determine their fate. (Suddenly, I remembered Bem's one-time desperate remark: "if the bridge, (the Piski-Bridge) is lost, Transylvania will be lost". And if Kolozsvár...?)