Torockó is a treasure chest that can be opened with many keys and in many ways. Its location, breathtaking natural features, the still-preserved unity of the village's image, its rich ethnographic heritage, and its religious and denominational uniqueness all contribute to the extraordinary appeal of this place. Anyone who comes here – even once – will almost certainly return to the village where the sun rises twice every morning. The number of enthusiastic visitors proves that there is no bias in saying that Torockó is one of the most beautiful settlements in Transylvania. The buildings are wonderful, the natural features are also great, but none of them alone explains the mysterious attraction of the place, because the reason for it is the harmony of the above many beauties, rarely found elsewhere. You can experience this for yourself if you return to the village after an excursion, sit down at one of the tables in front of the Bányász (Miner) pub, surrounded by the gurgling water of the Vajor (the concrete pit). Sip one from your beer, look at the Székelykő, and you’re part of an experience that is very close to perfection that can be achieved in earthly existence.
Let's start this short introduction with the location of Torockó. Torockó (Rimetea) is located in the middle of Transylvania, in the area of the old Aranyosszék, in today's Fehér County (Judetul Alba), near Torda (Turda). Due to its wonderful, picturesque environment and easy accessibility, it is one of the better-known Transylvanian settlements even for Hungarians, as the visitor can find himself in an iconic Transylvanian environment within an hour's drive. We are 57 km from Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), 25 km from Nagyenyed (Aiud) and the already mentioned Torda, but Gyulafehérvár (Alba Julia) is not far either, 55 km away, so Torockó could be an ideal base for exploring this – central – part of Transylvania. The settlement itself is located in a north-south oriented valley, with the Székelykő from the east and the Ordaskő from the west enclosing the narrow valley where the village is located, Torockó itself to the north, and Torockószentgyörgy (Colțești), which is administratively part of it, to the south. The valley can be reached from the north through the Gorge of Borrév (Buru), and from the south through the eloquently named Gorge of Kőköz. This location, or more precisely the special curved ridge of Székelykő that borders the valley from the east, causes the phenomenon we already mentioned in the introduction: here – at least in summer – the sun really does rise twice, as after the first sunrise it is hidden for a while behind the “Kiskő” (small stone) block of Székelykő before it “really” rises.
The former castle of Torockó stood on the Székelykő, on the site of a Roman-era fortress (castrum), or military camp. The Romans mined gold in the nearby Aranyos (Aries) River valley, and the guardhouse may have been part of the related defense system. In the 7th–8th centuries, Slavs settled in the valley, to whom we owe the name of the settlement, and this name also sheds light on the former activities of the inhabitants here: the most convincing explanation is that the word Torockó comes from the Slavic word “trosc” meaning “iron stone”, “iron slag”, and refers to iron mining and ironworking, which was a typical activity carried out here until the end of the 19th century. During their conquest, Hungarians settled here. The above-mentioned castle, erected by the Toroczkai family of the Ákos clan, was built afterwards and was destroyed during the Tatar (Mongol) invasion in 1241. The first mention of the Torockó settlement is found in the royal deed of donation (in the form of Toroczko) from 1257, which gives the castle to the Székelys of Kézd who liberated it. The rebuilt and fortified castle was then successfully defended during the next Tatar invasion in 1285. At this time, in the second half of the 13th century, a group of Székelys from Kézd received the depopulated area between the Maros and Aranyos rivers. This way a Székely “seat” was established here: Aranyosszék, with its center in Felvinc, in the middle of Transylvania, somewhat separated from the Székely Land block. It came with the usual Székely privileges, of course. The free German settlers located in Torockó are first mentioned in the charter of András III in 1291. They introduced the heavy iron hammers powered by water to metal processing. Around this time, in 1290, András III allowed the local landlord to settle Romanian peasants in the southern part of the valley, in the area of Bedellő and Torockógyertyános. Torockó developed into a significant settlement by the end of the Middle Ages due to its good ore deposits and industrial activity.
What distinguishes Torockó not only from its immediate surroundings, but also from the majority of Szekler people is its specific religion, Unitarianism, a rare and perhaps lesser-known branch of Protestantism, which at the same time – at least in the Carpathian Basin – has almost exclusively Hungarian adherents. A literary thread may come to mind in connection with this special denomination: In his novel The God is One, famous Hungarian writer Jókai presents the main character, Adorján Manassé, who is – perhaps not incidentally – from Torockó and of Unitarian religion, as an example of the peculiar Transylvanian Puritan morality. The fabulous love story of the Jókai novel takes place in 1848/49, and Adorján Manassé is a true James Bond-like male ideal, a kind of mysterious hero who is an infinitely decent man. In the novel, Jókai speaks of the Unitarian religion as follows: "a legally established religious denomination in Hungary. Christians who profess only one God, and when they swear, they raise one thumb to the sky." We cannot make a definitive statement about the oath – perhaps it is worth observing the locals – but there is no doubt that the Unitarian denomination has gained ground: the famous 1568 Diet of Turda, which, in an incredibly progressive manner compared to the religious wars of the time, decided on the equality of the four established religions as a testament to religious tolerance. It indeed recognized Unitarianism, alongside the Catholic, the Reformed and the Evangelical denominations, and recognized it as an established religion with equal rights in the Principality of Transylvania – even if Unitarianism is very radical, as it denies the Holy Trinity. It is no wonder, since the father of Hungarian Unitarianism, Ferenc Dávid, was the court preacher of Prince János Zsigmond, and as such, he had such an influence on the prince and his entourage that he was given the printing press in Gyulafehérvár to spread his views. Ferenc Dávid himself went from being a Catholic parish priest to becoming a follower of the Lutheran and then Calvinist Reformation, a Reformed bishop, and already under the leadership of János Zsigmond he began to profess the more radical anti-trinitarian (Trinity-denying) beliefs associated with Mihály Szervét (Miguel Serveto). Unitarianism is the only branch of the Reformation that does not recognize the divine nature of Jesus: it considers Jesus to be entirely and exclusively human, who at the same time taught most correctly about God. The anti-trinitarian trend appeared and spread in Europe and even in the New World in the 16th century and thereafter, but we will not go into its description here. Here in Transylvania, although the decisive influence of Unitarianism significantly diminished after the prince's death (1570), and Ferenc Dávid himself died a few years later as a prisoner in the Déva castle prison, Torockó remained a Unitarian – and remains so to this day. (For further information on Unitarians, we recommend the website of the Hungarian Unitarian Church: https://unitarius.org)