Each county of Romania is unique through its local history and legends, as well as through the traditions preserved from long ago.

We invite you to visit all the counties included in Attractive Romania, and for the experience to be complete, we present the stories and customs of each area, so that your trip is unforgettable!

To begin with, we will stop in Mureș County. Here you will meet along the way 12 objectives included on the route of castles, of fortresses, of castra, of Saint Ladislaus, but also villages with authentic architecture and traditional gastronomy.

✴️ The story of the "Calendar Castle" and the reserve of steppe peonies in the vicinity

Year after year, in Zau de Campie, thousands of tourists come to admire the Steppe Peony Nature Reserve, but in the same place there is also the Ugron Castle, known as the "Calendar Castle". The name comes from its unusual structure, having 365 windows, like the days of the year, four towers, like the four seasons, 12 halls, representing the months of the year, 52 rooms, the number of weeks, and seven terraces that refer to the days of the week.

Ugron Castle »

The original owner of the castle was István Ugron, ambassador and diplomat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a convinced bachelor who, some say, built the castle precisely to display his desire for comfort. Others, on the other hand, tell an interesting story about the romance between István Ugron and one of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II.

It is said that the ambassador, head over ears in love, was courting the princess, trying his best to impress her, so he began to pave the alley leading to the castle with gold coins, all at the request of the girl. But things got complicated along the way, more precisely when, while the baron was halfway through the work, the tsar's daughter asked that the money be put on the edge so that no one would step on the emperor's crown, which would have meant a lack of respect and loyalty. In order to fulfill her wishes, Ugron gave the order to rebuild the path, but this time he did not have enough money. Ashamed, he stopped courting the girl, realizing that it was impossible for him to fulfill all her wishes. Then, shortly after the event, during the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks came to power, and the entire family of the Tsar was killed, including the beloved princess. With his heart torn by pain because of a great unfulfilled love, the ambassador retired from public life, in mourning.

✴️ How the ancestors of today's Lebanese and Syrians came to defend the borders of the Roman Empire in Mures County

Perhaps among the least known, but even more interesting objectives in Mures is the Roman castrum of Călugăreni. Unique in the area, with the role of defending the eastern border of the province of Dacia and especially the road on the Niraj Valley, the initial fortification was built at the end of the reign of Emperor Trajan. An interesting, but completely unexpected piece of information is related to those who guarded the borders of the Roman Empire on these lands, 2000 years ago. According to archaeological data, the troop stationed at Călugăreni was Cohors I (the first) Augusta Ituraeorum sagittariorum, an auxiliary unit of infantrymen and archers, initially recruited from among the Iturai, a population that inhabited the territory of today's Lebanon and Syria.

Roman Castrum Călugăreni »

✴️ The connections of the Teleki family from Gornești with Voltaire and J.J. Rousseau

We invite you to discover other wonderful places in Mures County, such as the Medieval Fortress of Sighișoara (the largest medieval fortress in Europe, inhabited without interruption, declared a UNESCO monument since 1999), where the house where Vlad the Impaler was born is located, or the Rhedey Castle in Sângeorgiu de Pădure, the birthplace of Countess Rhédey Claudia,  one of the ancestors of the Royal Family of Great Britain.

In Mureș there is also Teleki Castle, whose counts were not only part of the imperial courts, but were passionate about culture and philosophy, so they met Voltaire and J.J. Rousseau and established in Gornești one of the most imposing libraries in Transylvania, before the First World War.

The Teleki Castle in Gornești »