If you are planning a trip to Maros county for the weekend, be sure to stay there for at least three days, to be able to visit at least the most important attractions of a smaller region of the county. In this article we will help you how to plan your trip in Mures county!
First, you must know that for a single-base trip would be the best if you choose a town (Marosvásárhely – Targu Mures, Szászrégen – Reghin, Szováta – Sovata, Segesvár – Sighisoara or Marosludas – Ludus), and from your base you can discover the town first, and then the surroundings.
If you choose Marosvásárhely as your base, as a general introduction take a walk in the city center, see the Palace of Culture, climb the Prefecture tower, from where you can admire the city from above, walk around the Rózsák Square, see the churches, synagogue, Theater Square with the remaining tower of the demolished Franciscan church, and of course the medieval castle. Don’t miss the leisure destinations, such as the zoo, the Weekend Complex (Víkend-telep), or the salt baths of the Apollo Wellness Club Complex in neighboring Marosszentgyörgy.
If you are visiting the area of Szászrégen, the city of violins, don’t miss visiting the factory, where all those amazing instruments are made! In the historic downtown, admire the eclectic, Art Nouveau, neoclassical and baroque buildings, see the Lutheran church, which is the oldest monument in the city, the Anton Badea Ethnographic Museum, and visit the Kerekerdő, the highest point of the city.
From Szászrégen, you can easily access the hiking trails of the area; the lava caves from the Calimani Mountains, created by tree trunks over which volcanic lava had flownt; the Defileul Mureșului Superior Natural Park; the old oak reserve of the Swamp Forest (Mocsárerdő/Padurea Mociar at Gurghiu). Don’t miss visiting the castles in the area: the Hohenzollern hunting castle in Laposnyatelep (Lapusna), the Rákóczi-Bornemisza castle in Görgényszentimre (Gurghiu), the Kendy-Kemény castle in Marosvécs (Brancovenesti) or the Teleki castle in Gernyeszeg (Gornesti).
If you are more attracted to Segesvár, you can even travel around by bike thanks to the bicycle paths created in the area, which connects some of the important attractions, for example Breite, a very famous wood pasture site with very old oak trees. In the area you find important sites of Unesco heritage Mures: in Szászkézd (Saschiz), the Lutheran Church is one of the Transylvanian Saxon fortress churches that are part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. So is the medieval fortress of Segesvár, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Driving from Segesvár to Szováta, after the Balavásár intersection, the next stop could be the Rhédey Castle in Erdőszentgyörgy, a neo-baroque style building. Did you know that in 1812, in this castle was born and raised Countess Claudine Rhédey, the great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II of England? Now you know, and if you visit the castle, vis-a-vis you find a little old church in which you find the tomb of the countess.
From Erdőszentgyörgy, you can make a detour to the water reservoir of Bözödújfalu/Bezidu Nou, the village which was flooded during the Ceausescu dictatorship, and its population was displaced. Bözödújfalu, home primarily to Unitarian, Reformed, Catholic and Sabbatarian Hungarians, was targeted and destroyed intentionally by the Ceausescu government.
Now the lake is an important site for pilgrims from all around the world, it has a memorial park, and every year the descendants of the former residents organize commemoration for the flooded village. Together with the local town hall, the people of Bözödújfalu organized a public donation campaign for the building/memorial of the Temple of Togetherness, which is now under construction.
