The Emperor’s Visit – Franz Josef at Huedin (Lost Lands #196)

I used to drive through the small town of Edgemont on the fringes of the Black Hills in South Dakota. I never had much interest in Edgemont. It is far from the famous tourist routes in the Black Hills and hangs on as a center for local ranchers. Edgemont is the prototypical frontier town that has seen better days. From what I saw, the idea of better days in Edgemont would be stretching the truth beyond credulity.  That was until a little bit of historical knowledge transformed my opinion of the place. A passenger railroad once ran through Edgemont (freight trains still do). In 1906, the railway brought President Theodore Roosevelt to Edgemont for a brief visit as he made his way to Yellowstone National Park. Roosevelt spoke at a bandstand which is still standing there today. Edgemont’s fifteen minutes of fame transformed how I saw it. I now have the same feeling about Huedin (Banffyhunyad) in western Transylvania after learning about the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph’s to the town in autumn 1895. 

Ease of Access – An Empire On Rails

Huedin with its eight-hundred-year-old Gothic style Reformed Church, a clutch of other historic houses of worship, and ornate Gypsy palaces has more going for it than Edgemont. Nevertheless, I still consider it a fringe town. Huedin exists in the shadow of Cluj (Kolozsvar), Transylvania’s largest city located 53 kilometers to the east. Cluj, with 330,000 people, is the economic and cultural capital of the region. Somnolent Huedin (pop. 8,069) gets easily overlooked. I imagine that was as true in the past as it still is today. Perhaps that is why I was surprised to discover that Huedin was graced by no less the presence of Emperor Franz Josef on September 26, 1895. The citizens of Huedin gave him a warm welcome. Franz Joseph rode into the town center on a horse drawn carriage which passed through an arch the citizens had crafted out of wreaths and flowers. A photo from that moment shows a festive scene.

Franz Joseph’s visit must have been a thrill for the citizens who had only ever seen their emperor portrayed in statues, busts, and pictures in newspapers. I hope to find the spot where he was welcomed as part of my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. Unlike the bandstand in Edgemont, the arch in Huedin wilted long ago. I am pretty that sure with a bit of sleuthing, I will be able to find the sport where the festivities took place on what was one of the most memorable days in Huedin’s history, and certainly its most historic during its time as part of Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867 – 1918). It was not often that a provincial town far from the glamor of the imperial capital of Vienna would be graced by the emperor’s presence. That began to change in the late 19th century as railways began to stitch the empire together, making almost all of it within a day’s travel from the capital.  

On Maneuvers - Dodging Bullets  

Franz Josef got around. The emperor rode the rails back and forth across the empire with increasing frequency as its railway network exploded in growth. He traveled in the spring, summer, and fall to outlying regions. Rather than hide in the Hofburg, Franz Joseph chose duty and fidelity to his subjects. The masses might see him at spas, military maneuvers, provincial cities or a town like Huedin. This took some courage on his part. Franz Joseph had survived an assassination attempt not long after he came to power. His wife, Queen Elisabeth was felled by an assassin’s knife. His successor, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was gunned down in Sarajevo. The period during which Franz Joseph ruled from 1848 – 1916) was an age of assassination. Numerous European leaders and three American presidents lost their lives to political violence. That did not keep Franz Joseph from traveling throughout his domains. The emperor traveled at his leisure around the sprawling empire. The list of his travels is impressive.

By the time he traveled to Huedin in 1895, Franz Josef had taken over 140 official trips. In 1895 alone he traveled twelve times on trips that took him to France, Germany, Slovenia. Croatia (twice), Austria (five times beyond his residence at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna), Bohemia, and Hungary. The latter occurred from September 22nd – 26th when the emperor visited Huedin. Why Huedin when Cluj (Kolozsvar) was only a 45-minute ride by railway? The answer is simple. Franz Josef’s visit to Huedin was a byproduct of his presence at the Siebenbergen maneuvers for the Austro-Hungarian Army’s maneuvers. (Siebenbergen means seven fortresses and is the German name for Transylvania). While I have been unable to find exactly where those maneuvers took place around Huedin, I hope to pinpoint that location for a visit. There is plenty of open land in outlying areas that could play host to a sizable contingent of the military.

Golden Age - A Feeling of Romance

The opportunity to stand in the footsteps of Franz Josef as he watched his army is too good an opportunity for me to pass up. I have been to several of Franz Josef’s other old haunts in Vienna and Budapest, but never to a remote place he visited. Huedin was in 1895, as it is today, a provincial town. A visit by the emperor caused great excitement. Transylvania was not a place that Franz Josef visited very often. As a matter of fact, his visit to Huedin was his first to the region and only one of two during his sixty-eight-year reign.

Military maneuvers were an important event, one that Franz Josef did not miss. He would attend more of them in the years to come. As I read through a list of Franz Josef’s travels around the empire I felt envy. He was traveling in style during the golden age of railway travel in Europe. My own travels by rail have elicited a feeling of romance. As I imagined what it must have been like to ride the rails in the emperor’s plush carriage, I wanted to repeat his travels. That would take years, but I can always dream. In the meantime, I will continue my lost lands journey ever deeper into Transylvania.