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Transylvania

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transylvania (enc)

Transylvania

Transylvania is known as the Switzerland of the Carpathians, it is oftern considered a misterious, secluded land. This stands for those who never tried to know it. The uniqueness of this land is the result of many cultures living side by side, interacting, enduring hard times during the centuries. Hungarians/Seklers, Saxons from Karinthia, protestants from Salzkammergut, Romanians, Armenians, Jewish/Jiddish, French all had great influence and great sons who became world famous. The architecture is true mirror of all influences.

Transylvania was the very first place on the earth where freedom of religion was declared and legalized. Here the Unitarian Church was born.

Famous mathematicians: Bolyai Janos (as a teenager set himself to resolve the 2000 year old geometry problem, reserched by his father also the Euclid's fifth  parallel postulate. He had recognized the impossibility of this task so he developed absolute geometry that is independent of the fifth postulate and also hyperbolic geometry where this postulate is negated. He was  21 years old when he reported to his father :"I have discovered things so wonderful that I was astounded... out of nothing I have created a new different world") other famous mathematician was Valyi (the theory of the propeller which led to developing a theory of partial differential equations, his thesis was published at Kolozsvár in 1880).

The far East, Middle East meets West here. Brasov is the last true Western European city if traveling East. Many say this is where Europe ends. This is not accurate from geographical point, but points to the great differences you'll find soon as you travel South accross the Carpathian Mountains.  

 

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