Diaries Reveal 55 Severe Winters in 100 Years During Transylvania’s Little Ice Age
Learn how centuries-old diaries and chronicles reveal how bitter cold and heavy rain compounded crop failures, hunger, and disease in Transylvania in the 1600s.
Records from 1651 reveal that cherries and strawberries in Transylvania ripened late and roses bloomed late into September. Researchers in Romania combed through hundreds of diaries and chronicles, and found that Transylvania experienced 55 severe winters in the 1600s. Some of these winters were so cold that rivers and lakes froze solid.
The cold and heavy rain contributed to poor harvests, famine, and plague. Research suggests that a period of low solar activity, known as the Maunder Minimum, may have caused the cold. The winters were sharpest after 1645, with 36 of the 55 winters occurring between 1645 and 1700. One account from 1645 describes lakes frozen to the bottom, and a heavy snowfall in May 1665 caused significant farm losses.
In 1659, bitter cold and deep snow prevented an Ottoman army from advancing in Timișoara, and in 1691, Habsburg soldiers besieged a fortress on the frozen Criș River. The century fell within the Little Ice Age, a prolonged period of cooler temperatures in Europe. The researchers believe that the cold winters were linked to weak solar activity during the Maunder Minimum.
However, they also note that social factors, such as hunger, floods, and plague, made people more vulnerable to the harsh conditions.
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