The Mures County

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, Gurghiu Dendrologic Park, Zau de Campie steppe peony Reservation, Fagadau Lake, Gornesti dendrologic Park, Gornesti Castle, Zau de Campie Castle, Cris Castle.

The municipality of Targu Mures, capital city of this county, is an important tourist centre 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 departement 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 XVIII-th 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 locksmithes, 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-XVIII th century) in an Italian Renaissance style; Cris Castle (19 km far from Sighisoara); Teleky Castle (the XVIII-th 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 XVI-th century).

Sighisoara - the "Pearl of Tarnava", "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 architecturaly 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 Tepee 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 well-known 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 gynaecological medical attendances. Sovata is mentioned as a spa since the end of the XVI-the 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, Vatava 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.