Khust

Khust stands where the Rika joins the upper Tisza, beneath a castle on a volcanic hill. The fortress guarded the route to the salt mines of Solotvyno and the entrance to the Maramureș basin. Its position made it an important stronghold in the mountain lands between Hungary and Transylvania.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Habsburg and Transylvanian rulers fought for Khust, while Ottoman and Tatar forces attacked the region. During the rising of Francis II Rákóczi, the castle garrison joined his supporters, and a Transylvanian diet met here in 1709. Lightning struck the fortress in 1766, causing a fire that destroyed its defences. The ruins on the hill recall the salt road and the wars once watched over from its walls.