History & Heritage
Old writings tell of harsh winters in Transylvania
A study published on October 28, 2026, used diaries and chronicles from the 1600s to learn about past winters.
On October 28, 2026, a team of researchers in Romania published a study about the weather in Transylvania in the 1600s. At that time, Transylvania was a principality with its own prince, but today it is a region in central Romania.
The 1600s were part of the Little Ice Age, a long period when European winters were often colder than today. To learn about the weather of that time, the team studied old written records. These included chronicles, diaries, official records and notes written in church books. Many of the texts were written in old forms of Hungarian, German, Latin, Turkish or Slavic languages. In total, the researchers found 937 separate reports about the climate from 68 places.
Word in this story
Very severe and difficult to live through, for example because the weather is extremely cold.
The records describe 55 winters in the 1600s as especially harsh.