Church of the Salt Cutters

 

Right near the Turda Salt Mine, the Church of the Salt Cutters majestically raises its towers. It is also called the Church of the Salt Cutters, because its name comes from the Hungarian language, "só" meaning salt and "vágó" meaning cutter, being from the beginning the place of prayer of the miners from the Turda Salt Mine.

The story dates back to 1467, when King Matei Corvin crushed a plot of the nobles from Cluj and Turda and it is said that he appointed Miklos Olah, his Romanian-related uncle, as prefect of the Salt Mines in Transylvania, with headquarters in Turda. He allowed the Orthodox Romanians from the Turda Salt Mine to build their own church, near the Salt Mine, under the condition that they work in the salt mines.

The Church of the Salt Cutters, built of wood, was erected on the salt mine land. After 1700, the church became the seat of the Greek-Catholic confession and the protopope of Turda. A few years later, in 1709, it was rebuilt by the Greek-Catholics.

200 years later, in 1948, the church was confiscated and given to the Romanian Orthodox Church, which renovated it in the Byzantine style