ERDELY

Transylvania also known as Erdely or Erdel or Ardeal was once a real country, a Principality in Eastern Europe! It's also been part of Roman Dacia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and after the Treaty of Trianon, most of it is now part of Romania.

(Hungarian and Romanian readers please note this lens is not a place for arguing over which country Transylvania should be part of)

Transylvania is and should not be known just for vampires and werewolves.

It was also a realm of religious tolerance where Catholics and Protestants, Orthodox and Jews had legal rights to varying degrees and was multicultural before that term was ever invented! There was some persecution or restricited rights for some minorities but no Inquisition and few pogroms.

Unitarianism developed here and thrived along with Lutheranism and Calvinism and other Protestant sects side by side although not totally peacefully with Catholics, Jews, and Orthodox Christians.

Ethnic groups in Transylvania include Germans, Magyar and Szekely, (Hungarians) , Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Romanians, and more!

The various groups were divided in natios and tolerati.

While doing research for a possible novel I found lots of amazing books and sites that I want to share with you so read on and enjoy this lense!