The Szekler Museum of Ciuc

TEMPORARILY CLOSED The museum is closed between 1 November 2022 and 1 May 2023. Visits by appointment only. The Aragonite Museum is open between 1 May and 1 November. It is located vis-a-vis Melcului Hill, on DN13A, in the former grinding plant. Aragonite is a crystallized mineral, enriched with carbonated calcium by salty mineral waters. The museum presents the history and technique of aragonite polishing, an original collection of pieces that were made in the same building, some 100 years ago. The aragonite objects and artefacts arrived in 1890 at the World Exhibition in Paris (vases, ashtrays, lamps, cups, fruit, etc.). We look forward to greet you in the first and only museum of its kind in Europe.

The Museum, founded in 1946 from the collections of the Unitarian Gymnasium, bears the name of its founder, the ethnographer-scholar dr. Molnár István (1910-1997). In the seven decades of its existence, the institution has played an important role in the cultural life of the city. Besides its regional ethnographic values, the museum attracts visitors with its rich archeological, local history, natural sciences and fine arts collections. Permanent exhibitions: archeology-local history; outdoor ethnography section with two folk architecture monuments (Păltiniş House, 1853 and Tarceşti House, 1780, households, Szekler gates); an industrial exhibition hall, an underground exhibition of local agriculture, ceramics, flora and fauna of the land.

The town hall and the local mineral water bottling plant jointly funded the creation of the Mineral Water Museum in Borsec. The history of the area, which intertwines with the exploitation of the mineral water, is presented in a special place. Tourists, as well as locals, have the opportunity to see over 100 objects and photos, from labels on mineral water bottles to containers that transported water 200 years ago. The oldest exhibit in the Mineral Water Museum is a bottle used to store mineral water in the late 1800s.

Szőcs Lajos, whose family has three generations of straw hat makers, has decided to set up the first Straw Hat Museum in the country at Crişeni. The museum was established in a traditional renovated farmhouse. In the first room displays the straw hat models in the country, the middle room displays different objects of use and decoration, and the last room presents the hatter technique, all the way from straw harvesting to the finished hat. It is also possible to see and even try the largest hat in the country, with a diameter of two meters and a weight of 2.65 kg. 500 m of straw and 1.5 km of thread were used for its manufacture. In the courtyard of the Museum, the visitor can admire an extraordinary collection. More than 600 stones sculptured by nature, with special shapes such as duck, dove, cap, etc. There is also a five-meter hat in the yard. The museum can be visited daily. If it's closed, ask at the bar.

The museum in Gheorgheni bears the name of its founder, Tarisznyás Márton (1927-1980), historian, curator and ethnographer, who mapped the traditional folk world of Gheorgheni area. The museum hosts three permanent exhibitions. The first is divided into two categories: the Szekler-Magyar and Armenian folk ports in the Gheorgheni area, along with the folk port of the Csangos, the Romanians from Voşlobeni and the Gypsies from Gheorgheni, and the tools and materials used to weave them. The second exhibition displays minerals, rocks, crystals and fossils found in the Gheorgheni area and not only, and in the third exhibition we can see the paintings of János Karácsony. Note that the mineral exhibition is one of the largest collections of its kind in the country, in terms of diversity. Besides these, of course, there are temporary exhibitions and many thematic activities at different times of the year. The building hosting the Tarisznyás Márton Museum was built between 1770 and 1778, in Baroque style. It is one of the oldest private houses of the city. Text source: http://www.visitgheorgheni.ro

The Haáz Rezső Museum in Odorheiu Secuiesc is an ethnographic, local history, art and natural history museum in the central area of ​​Szeklerland - a territory in the Southeastern part of Transylvania. The Haáz Rezső Museum is one of the oldest institutions of education and culture, both locally and in the whole region. The first inventory (Protocollum) of the reformed college (an institution founded by Count János Bethlen), made in in 1797, has been preserved to this day, and is proof of the fact that besides the library, it also had a collection of antiquities, numismatics and geology. At that time, there was already a drawer of physics and natural sciences, a collection of natural curiosities, relics, the coats of arms of the benefactors, and flags. While other initiatives remained unsuccessful, the collection of folk art founded by Rezső Haáz (1883-1958), an art teacher, counting about four thousand objects, became an individual museum. The collection is public since 1913, and in 1950 it became a state museum (raion), having its own headquarters in 1978. The museum received one hectare of land in front of the grave of Balázs Orbán in Seiche. Starting with 1972, a row of the Szekler gates was erected - the beginning of an open-air museum. Opening times: 1st February – 31st March Tuesday – Friday: 9am – 5pm Saturday – Sunday: 10am – 2pm 1st April – 31th August  Tuesday – Friday: 9am – 6pm Saturday – Sunday: 10am – 6pm 1th September – 31st October Tuesday – Friday: 9am – 5pm Saturday – Sunday: 10am – 2pm 1st November – 31st January Tuesday – Friday: 9am – 4pm The Museum is closed on Mondays, on church and state holidays. Permanent exhibition: • THROUGH THORNS… Chapters from the 350-year history of the Reformed College in Odorheiu Secuiesc

Tinovul Mohoş is located in the eastern corner of the Ciomatu Mare Massif, at the southern foot of Mohoş Peak (1177 m) at an altitude of 1050 m. It has a diameter of 800 m, an area of 80 ha and a depth of 10 m. Tinovul Mohoş is actually an alpine peat bog. From the ancient lake, only 13 puddles of water remained. The view of the pine trees growing on the peat layer, as well as the thick bilberry bushes, offer a great sight. Among the rare species of the reserve are the carnivorous plants of the quaternary era such as the round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), Drosera obovata, the english sundew (Drosera anglica) and the bog cranberry (Vacccinium oxicoccos). There are also species from the last ice age: the bog-rosemary (Andromeda polifolia), the black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) and the hare's-tail cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum). Photo source: http://www.greenharghita.ro

The lake St. Ana, located in the crater of Ciomatul Mare, is the only volcanic lake in Central and Eastern Europe, being the most visited travel destination of the Szeklerland.  The steep walls of Ciomatul Mare’s volcanic cone surround it, with a few higher peaks: Ciomatul Mare (1301 m), Ciomatul Mic (1238 m), Tata hill (1174 m) or Pietros peak (1125 m). Unique in Europe, the lake is at 946 m altitude, with a diameter of 1737 m and a maximum depth of 7 m. From the edge of the crater, 13 temporary brooks, which form during heavy rains, bring water and gravel into the lake.  The lake is fed by rainwater and snow melt. The process of sedimentation began on the northern and western edges, an increasingly thick layer of sludge covering the bottom of the lake. When the weather is fine, especially without wind, you can see bubbles of gas rising from the bottom of the lake, which are actually manifestations of post-volcanic activity. In the north and northeast of the lake, one can see a layer of floating peat about one meter thick. Cover photo: Fodor István

Lázár Castle, built close to the center of Lăzarea/Gyergyószárhegy village, is one of the most beautiful examples of Transylvanian Renaissance architecture. The castle with battlements was one of the most attractive 17th-century noble residences in Transylvania. There are Gothic letter inscriptions from the year 1532 in the lobby, which has an ogive vault. The enclosing wall has four bastions. The entrance to the castle’s courtyard is through the gate tower on the southern side. The castle was built during the time of István Lázár, Gabriel Bethlen's playmate, later a trusted man of the Prince and the supreme royal judge of Giurgeu, Ciuc and Caşin areas. His coat of arms from 1632 is located on the wall of the bastion in the left corner, inside the courtyard. The same year marks the date when the castle was completed. In 1707, the Imperial Army burned the castle during a campaign of retaliation against the "Kuruc", who opposed the Habsburgs, as was the case of the castle's lord, Ferenc Lázár. His name is linked to the construction and reconstruction of the Knights' House. Among the outstanding personalities who visited the castle is Prince Gabriel Bethlen, whose mother was a member of the Lázár family. Mihnea Voda of Muntenia hid in Lázár Castle for a year after the Turks banished him, and Petru Rares of Moldavia spent 11 years here, between 1527 and 1538. Lázár Castle has been repeatedly burned, and in 1842 it fell into ruin, following another fire. Since 1967, the castle has undergone renovation and restoration, which is still ongoing. The ultimate goal is to recreate the former splendor of the building, as it is one of the most important Renaissance buildings in Transylvania. During the renovation, it was designated as an archaeological site. In 2013, the state returned it to the descendants of the Lázár family, which is why the fortune of the castle is still undecided. Visits on Sundays by prior arrangement! +40 745 295 925 ENTRY • adult: 35 RON • groups over 25 people: 30 RON • senior citizens: 30 RON • students: 20 RON • residents of Lăzarea/Gyergyószárhegy: 20 RON • children under 7 years: free of charge • Professional filming/photography fee: 200 RON