Pilgrimage Site in Eresteghin

14 kilometres east of Sfântu Gheorghe, there are almost always cars waiting on the road to Bacău. In the churchyard of Eresteghin, a part of the village of Moacșa, there is a modest monument to the legendary cannon founder Áron Gábor, a freedom fighter of the 1848-49 Revolution, whose body was buried there after his heroic death at the bridge at Chichiș on 2 July 1849. Eresteghin became a Hungarian pilgrimage site thanks to the monument erected by the people of Covasna County over the tomb in 1892.

The village's name can be derived from the old Hungarian noun "eresztény," which means young mud forest, but there are several other derivations of the name with its peculiar sound. For example, in Balázs Orbán's seminal work, The Description of Szeklerland, the following legend is mentioned. At the time of the Tatar invasion, the Tatar Khan was inspecting the prisoners in the area of Eresteghin, and seeing the many old men unable to work, cried out: "ereszd a vént" (let the old men go). Those thus liberated settled in this place and named their new homeland after the cry that regained their freedom.

The village itself gave birth to heroes during the Revolution: Lieutenants János László and Zsigmond László were born here. Three members of the Eresztevényi family took part in the Revolution: György died a heroic death in the Battle of Sibiu in 1849, Antal was a major, and László lieutenant in Szeklerland's defence.

Samu Csinta