Comandau

Comandău command commandó
Basic data
State :	Romania
Historical region :	Transylvania
Circle :	Covasna
Coordinates :	45 ° 46 '  N , 26 ° 17'  E Coordinates: 45 ° 45 '40 "  N , 26 ° 16' 30"  E
Time zone :	EET ( UTC +2)
Height :	1017  m
Area :	18.35  km²
Residents :	1,006 (October 20, 2011)
Population density :	55 inhabitants per km²
Postal code :	527080
Telephone code :	(+40) 02 67
License plate :	CV
Structure and administration (as of 2016)
Community type :	local community
Mayor :	Béla Kocsis ( UDMR )
Postal address :	Str. Principală, no. 63 loc. Comandau, jud. Covasna, RO-527080
Website :	www.kommando.ro

View of Comandau

The Waldbahn locomotive, 1996

Comandău [ komanˈdəu ] ( Hungarian Kommandó , German  Kommando ) is a bailiwick in the Szeklerland , in the Covasna district in the Transylvania region in Romania .

The place is also under the German name k. u. k. Border command known.

Geographical location

It is located in the historical area of ​​the Hungarian Háromszék county . At the Bach Bâsca Mare and the municipal road (drum comunal) DC 14, the place is about 50 kilometers east of the district capital Sfântu Gheorghe (Sankt Georgen) . Larger places in the area are the health resorts of Covasna and Târgu Secuiesc (Szekler Neumarkt) . There are many mineral springs in the region.

origin of the name

The name comes from the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , when this village was the easternmost post of the k. u. imperial monarchy, as a military "command". The place name, which is unusual for Romania, has its roots in the German language.

population

According to the 1992 census, Comandau had about 1120 inhabitants, 1028 of whom were of Hungarian origin, 75 were Romanian and 17 were Roma . The colloquial language in the village is Hungarian. Since the fall of the Wall there has been a high unemployment rate of up to 80% in the village. The male residents of the village in particular are therefore increasingly looking for work outside of the country's borders. The current population cannot therefore be given with certainty.

history

Comandău was founded as a border command post of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Szeklers were settled here in order to protect the eastern military border of the Habsburg Empire . Until the end of the 19th century, the Szeklers lived mainly from agriculture. At the end of the 19th century Comandau developed and expanded because of the emerging wood industry. At that time there was an immigration to Comandău from many European countries, mainly of forest workers. The graves of immigrants from the Czech Republic and Poland as well as from Germany, Austria and Sweden can be detected in the local cemetery. Their descendants were later Magyarized .

The funicular

In the course of the expansion of the forest industry at the end of the 19th century, the local route network including the funicular was set up. The main task of the forest railway with the funicular railway was to transport the wood from the local sawmill into the valley. The route network was relocated several times as required and had its largest extension at around 200 km. A transshipment point with various normal and narrow-gauge railways was set up in Covasna. The track width of the local rail network is 760 mm.

The funicular was built after the opening of the local railway between the village of Comandău and the administrative capital Covasna after 1892. This gravitational cable car has a length of 1236 m and an average gradient of 275 ‰. The difference in altitude to be overcome between Comandău and Covasna is around 400 m.

In 1999 the funicular was stopped. One of the reasons for this is the increasing relocation of timber transport to the road since the mid-1960s. But the privatization after the fall of the Wall also meant that the funicular railway increasingly fell into disrepair, and the new owners of the forests in the area no longer allowed their wood to be transported via the forest railway from Comandău. When a devastating forest fire also destroyed the funicular in 1996, it was initially rebuilt by the employees. However, after many operational disruptions, operations were finally closed in 1999.

Since then, the association "Sikló" (Hungarian for funicular) - Romanian Șiclău - has been trying to resume the operation of the railway connection between Comandău and Covasna, including the funicular.

Web links

Commons : Comandău  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Comandău at ghidulprimariilor.ro
• Frank Engel: Covasna - Comandau in Everything about steam locomotives

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2011 census in Romania at citypopulation.de
2. ↑ Arcanum Kézikönyvtár: Historical-administrative book of place names of Transylvania, Banat and Partium. Retrieved June 22, 2019 (Hungarian).