Loyalty Day

The "Loyalty Gate" in Sopron shows city dwellers pledging allegiance to Hungary.

It seems I share a birthday with a small national holiday here. Today is "Loyalty Day" (A Hűség Napja), which is celebrated in the western town of Sopron. It commemorates the plebiscite in 1921 in which the people of the city and several surrounding villages voted to become a part of Hungary, rather than Austria. About 65 percent voted to stay, and earned the city the nickname "Civitas Fidelissima" -- "the most loyal city." It's important because it marks the only time the hated Treaty of Trianon -- which dismembered historical Hungary -- was ever revised.