Transylvania, Harghita county

Text and photos: István Szász

The 2.9 hectare site was bought by the Szász family in 2002, when it was just a small wooden house and its barn. The house was surrounded by fruit trees, a potato field along the creek, and a few pine and birch trees dotted the pasture on the hill. Later, however, it provided an ideal setting for the architectural and tourist complex that had been polished over the years. At first, without a concept, the area was used as a refuge, on which authentic Gyimes houses were built as a village within a village. There were already half a dozen houses lined up on the site when their activity expanded from saving built heritage to a tourist activity, slowly developing into a skansen-like hospitality unit. The first events were called “Csángó value preservation camp”, which actively incorporated mainly Gyimes folk culture.