Aita Seacă, the Hidden Village

One of the most hidden villages in the region of Baraolt, it seems as if it is constantly ashamed of one of the most tragic moments in the history of Romanian-Hungarian coexistence in Covasna County. It was in Aita Seacă, 22 kilometres north-west of Sfântu Gheorghe, south of the municipality of Bățani, in a valley wedged between the Baraolt Mountains, that on 26 September 1944, the Maniu Guardsmen, who were marching into Szeklerland, executed 13 Szeklers with unimaginable cruelty in the courtyard of the school of the village, which today has a population of only 660. The bloody event is commemorated by a memorial plaque placed on the back wall of the school in 1990 and thirteen basalt columns erected in the centre of the village in 1994. A commemoration is held in the village to mark the anniversary of the event, which still characterises the village's public mood today. 

The same school was the first "home" of the illustrious native of the village, Mihály Abod Ajtai (1704-1776), the court priest of the "orphan" Kata Bethlen, and the principal-teacher of Bethlen Gábor College in Aiud. It was also the birthplace of Dániel Gecse (1768-1824), a doctor from Târgu Mureș and a pioneer in the fight against epidemic diseases.

The Reformed church of Aita Seacă was completed in 1790 but had to be rebuilt after the earthquake of 1802. The Romanian church was built by Greek Catholics in 1928 and is now owned by the Orthodox community.

Samu Csinta