About
The Szekler Legendarium project started in 2008 as a civil initiative, for the purpose of collecting and publishing the legends of the region, which represent a significant part of our intangible cultural heritage. Our project is mainly addressed to the children: we design and create products which can be attractive to them.
Our very first product was a map of Szeklerland, decorated with illustrations of 156 legends related to the region. The success of this initiative inspired us to publish our collection of legends, and then we created audiobooks, coloring book and several types of games. Finally we established the first animation studio of the region, which has 14 members at the moment.
We believe that the legends are lessons from our past, they give us a strong moral base in the present, showing a way to the future. Our mission is to promote these legends in a larger area, because they have not been included in the world literature so far. We would like to show the world that our region has a lot more exciting legends, older, than the Dracula horror story. In this small region almost every historical place, fortress, village and saint has at least one legend. Our area is populated by fairies, elves, demons, giants, dragons, warriors and kings.
Szekler Legendarium is a European trade mark: we promote our legends inside and outside the country, while we support schools, teachers and foster homes with our products. Until now we received partial, non-political financial support to our objectives, but our long-term goal is to make the Legendarium project self-sustaining.
In order to boost the tourism in our region, we have been working out the plans of Mini Transylvania Park, which will present the miniatures of almost 60 historical buildings and medieval fortresses of Transylvania. The park would take place in Szejkefürdő, near Székelyudvarhely, and it will offer several ways of having fun and developing knowledge about the multicultural Transylvania, for example we would like to establish a museum about the life of Orbán Balázs, the author of ”Description of the Szeklerland”, who was born and buried in the region.
We intend to diffuse our animation series, in progress, at international level. Our cartoon series are based on the Szekler legends, presented mainly in 3D.
We extended the Legendarium concept over the Carpathian region: we collect together and publish hundreds of legends of the Hungarian speaking communities from inside and outside the borders of Hungary.
We collect separately the legends of our well-known saints and kings. In 2017 will appear our collection of legends about Saint Ladislaus, which presents more than two hundred memories and monuments from the Carpathian region in an exciting novel, addressed to children.
We have been collected the legends of Virgin Mary from different European countries, extending our work to European level.
In 2017 we organized the first edition of the Legendarium Carnival in Székelyudvarhely. The event gave the chance to group of children to present on scene their villages’ legend. The carnival was a success, it had about 4000 guests from the region. Encuraged by this success, we intend to organize it every year and also extending and enriching it as possible.