Memories from Ojdula

In the past, it was one of the border villages of the eastern part of historical Hungary, the last settlement in Transylvania on the road to Focșani. Located 9 km east of Târgu Secuiesc, the name of the settlement is explained by folklore from the compound "Osd-ólja", based on the name of a Szekler named Osd and his estate there, first mentioned in 1332 as "Usdula". On the outskirts of the village, at the Jáhoros Stream in the Putna Gorge, you can see the ruins of the former castle of the border guards. Ojdula was also the ancestral home of the family of Kocsárd Kún, János Szapolyai's army commander until they settled on his estate in Hunedoara County, which he received as a gift in the 16th century.

The 1212 metres high Ojdula Pass - Via Vrancha, as the historian Péter Apor made it known to us, now known as the Kádár Road - has always been an important crossing point linking Transylvania with the Wallachia region. The coopers from Ojdula carried the barrels here to the wine region of Vrancea, and from there, they brought the good wines home.

A parish church was built in Ojdula as early as 1332, but it was completely destroyed in the 1802 earthquake, and the present one was consecrated on 25 May 1929 in honour of St. Mary Magdalene by Miklós Kovács from Tușnad. In the central square of the village there is the only millenary monument still intact in Covasna County, which, based on its style, was probably made by the famous Italian sculptor from Oituz, Pittino Anselmo.

Samu Csinta