Mures County
Part and parcel of the homeland’s history, Mures county bears witness
through time to uninterrupted continuity of life of human settlements
in this mirific region of the Romanian land. It has been the centuries-old
cradle of Romanian-Hungarian-German coexistence, its people, whichever
their ethnic origin, writing down together great pages in the history
of Romania’s material and spiritual civilisation. Historical sites
going back to the Dacians and the Romans attest to the noble patriotic
feelings that pervaded the inhabitants of this land. Later it was
the mediaeval fortress of Sighisoara, older than several centuries,
with its unique architecture of peerless historic value to Europe.
Mures county was the hearth of the Transylvanian School, of the leaders
of the 1848 revolution and of Avram Iancu, “the Mountains Prince”.
Nearer to our times, in 1944, 11,000 Romanian troops laid the supreme
sacrifice on the battlefields at Oarba de Mures, fighting for the
country’s freedom.
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Geographical
Outline
Mures county, ancient Romanian hearth, a picturesque part of the Carpathian-Danubian
space, is situated in the central-north-eastern part of Transylvania’s
beautiful citadel-like mountains, between 24° and 25°15’ East longitude
and 46°4’ and 47°12’ North latitude. The territory of the county occupies
an inter-Carpathian depression that gently descends in steps from
the volcanic peaks of the Calimani (2100 m) and Gurghiu Mountains
to the middle of the Transylvanian Plain (280 m), being crossed by
the valleys of the Mures and the two Tarnava rivers as well as by
their tributaries. In the spa of Sovata one can find Europe’s most
typical heliothermal lake. The climate is moderate continental, with
differences between the hilly forested zones and the mountainous ones.
The flora and fauna are characteristic of the Transylvanian Plateau.
Mures county boasts many protected monuments of nature: the century-old
oak forest of the marshy lands at Mocear, the Romanian peony at Zau
de Cimpie, the Daffodil Glade, the Dendrological Park, the motley
tulip at Gurghiu. The fauna includes the brown bear, the Carpathian
deer, the capercaillie, the doe, the wild boar, the pheasant and the
trout in mountain rivers. The area of the county is of 6714 sqkm.
The population counts over 600,000 inhabitants living in 4 municipalities,
3 towns and 90 villages.
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Touristic
Information
This
county has an area of 2.8 per cent of the surface of Romania. Its
population is of 606,800 inhabitants (Romanians, Magyars, and Germans).
The hilly and plateau relief is a half of its surface, the other
half consisting in the Transylvanian sub-Carpathian hills and the
Calimani-Gurghiu volcanic Mountains. The Basin of the Mures River
with its tributaries covers the whole hydrographic network of this
county. The climate is characterized by long and cold winters and
hot summers. Natural Reservations: Poiana Narciselor (Clearing of
Narcissuses) Natural Park, Giurghiu Dendrology Park, Zau de Campie
steppe peony Reservation, Fagadau Lake, Gornesti dendrology Park,
Gornesti Castle, Zau de Campie Castle, Cris Castle. The municipality
of Targu Mures, capital city of this county, is an important tourist
center thanks to its social, historical and cultural points of interest.
We mention some of its tourist places: Palace of Culture and Political
and Administrative Palace with its polychrome roof; the two Orthodox
churches - one of them having the biggest painted surface in Romania;
the Roman-Catholic Cathedral; the National Theatre. A true sightseeing
of this town has to comprise the Mirrors Hall of the Culture Palace
the archaeology-history department of the County Museum which was
recently reorganized on an up-to-date view, the Art Museum, the
County Library with its about 1 million volumes. This library has
the Teleki-Bolyai documentary stock founded in the XVIIIth century
by Teleki Samuel, former governor of Transylvania, with its over
200,000 books, journals, maps, incunabuli, engravings. Close to
the memorial museum dedicated to great mathematicians Bolyai Farkas
and Bolyai Ianos, there is the so-called "Tabla regeasca",
the former high court of Transylvania where Avram Iancu, Al. Papiu
Ilarian and other important personalities of the Revolution from
1848 were lawyers. A sightseeing in Targu Mures would be incomplete
without the Fortress with the towers of tanners, butchers, coopers,
furriers, and locksmiths, or the church built in a late Gothic style.
The castles of this county are most of them, valuable architectural
monuments in baroque, gothic or Renaissance styles: Bethlen (the
XV-XVIIIth century) in an Italian Renaissance style ; Cris Castle
(19 km far from Sighisoara); Teleky Castle (the XVIIIth century)
in baroque style with Transylvanian traditional elements; Dumbravioara
Castle (15 km far from Targu Mures); at Brancovenesti there is the
most representative castle situated on the Mures Valley (the XVIth
century). Sighisoara - the "Pearl of Tirnava", "a
Museum-Town" - as it is named this town situated on the banks
of the Tarnava Mare River - impresses with its mediaeval look. It
is a "museum town" because it is the only mediaeval citadel
in Europe which is still inhabited. Situated at 425 m above sea
level, it is surrounded by a wall which protects about 150 houses,
each of them being architecturally an unique one. The town is dated
back in 1280 as a Castrum Rex. Later, in 1345, the Church on the
Hill started to be built. It can be reached mounting the 175 steps
of a wooden staircase built in 1643. The Clock Tower is a sturdy
and severe building. The clock shows every day a statuette which
is a symbol of that day in a week. The clock was made in Switzerland
by the same watchmakers who made the clock of the Tower in Prague.
Here there is the house where Vlad Dracul, son of Mircea cel Batran
and father of Vlad Tepes lived between 1431-1435. All settlements
of the Mures county has a different look thanks to the history or
the more recent changes. In Reghin there is a wellknown string factory
which is the only one of this kind in Romania; Tarnaveni is a town
of chemistry; Iernut, a younger town, reminds, with its monument
situated on the Sangeorgiu Hill, on of the most bloody fights of
Romanians to liberate the Northern Transylvania, the one from Oarba
de Mures; Sovata, a spa situated at 475-530 m above sea level is
known thanks to the effects of the bathing cure in rheumatic and
gynecological medical attendances. Sovata is mentioned as a spa
since the end of the XVI-th century. Thanks to its clean air richly
in aerosols, to its picturesque landscape, to its five thermal lakes
(Ursu, Alunis, Negru, Rosu, Verde), this spa is a proper place for
resting, recreation, short holidays, excursion a.o. The Mures County
has a special ethnographic and folk thesaurus. Nice textures and
embroderies are made in Rusii Munti, Gurghiu, Lunca Bradului, Hodac,
Vitava etc. and leather and fur coats are made in the Gurghiu and
Reghin areas. The carving in wood, sculptures, household objects,
architecture, which is specificaly to the Mures and Gurghiu Valleys
are real masterpieces of folk art. Traditional feasts and customs
as the Girl's Fair in Gurghiu (in May), the Cherries Fair in Brancovenesti
(in July), the Fish Fair in Zau de Campie (in July) and the Wetting
of Wives in Hodac (the first after the Whit Sunday) are real feasts
and shows.
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Economy
Profile
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