Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The Austrian-Hungarian Border

At one time in history, crossing the border from Austria into Hungary and vice versa wasn’t easy and at times it wasn’t even possible. I can remember our first visit in 1977, our relatives took us to the border, close enough to see the armed guards in the tower, but we still maintained a safe distance away.

On my last few visits, I’ve had the opportunity to visit several different border crossing points. On this visit, Mrs. Szigethy’s daughter took us to see the border at Hegyko.

The border is in a farm field. Fences with barbed wire and mine fields were used to keep the Hungarian people from crossing the border into Austria.


Anyone who was successful crossing the border, had to still make their way across the farm field.







Another border crossing point was made famous by James Michener in the book “The Bridge at Andau”. We’ve visited this site on previous trips, but it was still moving to see it again. (I forgot to take a picture of the actual bridge!). Looking at the canal to the west, you can see that the sun is starting to set.

This site will always be preserved as a reminder to a dark time in history.


Another tower, however, this one is used to view the beautiful landscape of Burgenland.







We think that our ancestors who immigrated to Minnesota did so because the landscape is vey similar. Do you agree?

2 comments:

Mary said...

It does look similar to much of Minnesota. Great photos.

Khristine Doiron said...

Wow. 1977 wasn't that long ago. Glad to see that tower empty today.