Székely Gate in Stary Sącz: A Hungarian Gift of Hospitality

Po polsku: Brama seklerska w Starym Sączu

Have you ever walked through a gate that is said to bring you luck? In Stary Sącz, in Małopolska (the region around Kraków), you can. The Székely Gate (Brama seklerska) is one of only three gates of this kind in Poland. The other two are also in Małopolska, in Tarnów and Koszyce Wielkie. It was given to the town by the Székelys, a Hungarian-speaking people from Transylvania (today in Romania). It stands for hospitality, and walking through it is meant to bring good fortune.

Where the gate comes from

The gate was set up in Stary Sącz in June 1999. The Székelys gave it to the town to mark the canonisation of Blessed Kinga, who then became Saint Kinga.

Kinga was a Hungarian princess, the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary. She married Duke Bolesław the Chaste and founded the local convent of the Poor Clares (klaryski, an order of nuns). She is highly respected among Hungarian Catholics. Her cult is especially strong among the older generations of Székelys.

The Székelys live in Transylvania. Since the Middle Ages their task was to defend the eastern borders of the Crown of St Stephen (the historic Hungarian kingdom), mainly against the Ottoman Turks.

The gate shows images of St Kinga and St Jadwiga. Jadwiga was king of Poland, daughter of Louis of Hungary and wife of Władysław Jagiełło. So the gate links Polish and Hungarian history in one place.

You will find it close to the Poor Clares convent, not far from where the Trakt św. Kingi (St Kinga’s Way) meets ul. Bandurskiego.

The Székelys and their gates

The Székelys live in the easternmost part of the Carpathian basin. Their role is very important in the history and intellectual life of the Hungarians.

Carved Székely gates express a distinctive folk identity. They were usually made from good-quality oak, and more rarely from pine. The structure of the gates uses European carpentry techniques. The ornaments are different. The carved flowers, tendrils and various symbols reflect an older world, from before the Magyars arrived from the east. Of all the gates built across Europe over the centuries, the most beautiful and most impressive ones survive in greatest number in Transylvania.

Székely hospitality means a gate is never closed. It stands open to the happy and the unhappy alike, like the open and generous hearts of the Székelys. This is what the words carved on the arches of such gates say: „Peace to those who enter, blessing to those who leave.”

I like this idea very much. The gate in Stary Sącz is never locked either, so you can see it at any time of day.

A good detail to know

At the ceremony handing the gate over to the people of Stary Sącz, there were representatives of the Székely community. The then President of Hungary, Árpád Göncz, was also present.

My tip: the gate is on the way to St Kinga’s spring (źródełko św. Kingi), so it fits nicely into a short walk from the Main Square.

More guides: Kraków & Małopolska in English.

Łukasz, Niezwykła Małopolska