Salonta : Romania

Salonta (Hungarian: Nagyszalonta) is a town in Bihor county, Romania with a population of about 20,000.
History
The town was first documented in 1214 under the name of Zolotna and in 1332 a Papal document used the name Zalanta and starting 1587 the Hungarian spelling Szalonta was used.
Until the 16th century, it was only a small village which had about 300 inhabitants and was on the land of the Toldi family. A bigger town was the fort of Culiser, which was however destroyed by the Turks in 1598.
Culiser was never rebuilt and Salonta began to have a more important role in the region after in 1606, the prince of Transylvania, Stephan Bocskai settled here 300 soldiers which were appropriated with land. They build their own farms, but however had to keep their arms ready to repel an eventual attack of the Turks. 3 June, the day in which the soldiers were settled here was nowadays declared “the day of the town�.