Delne: Two Dogs Make a Church (Small Town Legends A to Z)

This year my A to Z theme is Small Town Legends. I am exploring folklore from villages and small towns around Hungary, bringing you the most entertaining bits. You can plan your next visit around them!

Csíkdelne or Delne is a village in Transylvania with about 700 (mostly Hungarian-speaking székely) inhabitants. It has a lovely 15th century church dedicated to St. John. The other village involved in this legend is the neighboring Csíkcsicsó, with about 2500 people.

Here is the story:

Back in the old days multiple villages would share a church. Since Delne and Csicsó belonged to the same congregation, they were going to have to build one together - but they could not agree on where the church should be. In one village, or the other? Or between the two? Finally they decided to put it all up to luck.

They exchanged dogs. Delne sent a dog to Csicsó, and Csicsó sent another one to Delne. Then, on an appointed day, they released both dogs and declared that wherever they meet on their way back home should be the location of the new church.

However, the people of Delne had a clever idea: they treated the dog well and fed it a lot of delicious food. So when the dog was released it wasn't really in a hurry to return home. The other dog was hungry and eager to get back to Delne - so in the end the two dogs met on the edge of the village. This is why the regional church was built in Delne, and stands to this day.

(Story collected from Gál Ferenc in Csíksomlyó, in 1956. Source here)