Székelys of Bukovina

The Székelys of Bukovina are a small Hungarian ethnic community with a complex history. They live today in the Tolna and Baranya counties of Hungary, in Hunedoara County in Romania and in the Serbian province of Vojvodina.

Some Székely groups migrated from Transylvania to the province of Bukovina in the second half of the 18th century and established new villages, where they retained their distinctive culture and folk traditions into the 20th century. The migration was a reaction to the organization by the Habsburg Empire of the Székely Frontier Zone, which jeopardized certain of the Székelys' ancient privileges and rights. The Székelys protested specifically against the forced military conscription at a gathering at Madéfalva (today Siculeni), which was forcibly dispersed by the Austrian General Josef Siskovics on 7 January 1764, in what came to be known as the Siculicidium or Massacre of the Székelys. More than 400 Székelys died. Thereafter about 1000 Székelys migrated to Bukovina, then part of Moldavia and still under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire.

The occupation of northern Bukovina by Austria in 1774 brought a further wave of Székely immigration: another 100 families settled in the still sparsely populated territory in 1776, followed by a further 200 in 1784 and 1786, with assistance from Emperor Joseph II of Austria and Count András Hadik, governor of Transylvania. The new Bukovina Székely villages were named Istensegíts ("God help us", now Ţibeni), Fogadjisten ("God, welcome us!", now Iacobeşti), Józseffalva (now Vornicenii Mari), Hadikfalva (now Dornești) and Andrásfalva (now Măneuţi).

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