The Mini Transylvania Park is the dream come true of a team of young Odorheiu Secuiesc locals; the collection of Transylvanian miniature landmarks opened in 2020, after the coronavirus restrictions were lifted, and has proved a great success, attracting so far over 100,000 visitors, according to ActMedia.eu.
The vibrant estate is the brainchild of Fazakas Szabolcs from Odorheiu Secuiesc, who visited in 2012 the Mini-Europe scale model park in Brussels and realized that no Transylvanian monument was featured there, so that he had the idea to design a similar park in his native city.
He located the park in Baile Seiche spa resort, which he held particularly dear because this is where he grew up and saw, over the years, the place falling into dereliction without the authorities intervening.
Together with his colleagues from the Visus Cultural Association, he took the first steps in 2015 and three years later they received the building permit; works effectively kicked off in November 2018, with more than a hundred people working to arrange the park and using for this about 5,000 cubic meters of materials, from concrete and ballast to earth and stone.
The Mini Transylvania Park stretches on almost one hectare and has 84 models of Transylvanian landmark buildings on display, with a route winding among these “mini buildings”, historical and architectural monuments included in the UNESCO or the National Heritage – castles, monasteries, fortified churches.
Fazakas says that the park represents “one of the masterpieces of his professional life” and insists that it is “a multicultural project” where buildings erected over time by Romanians, Szeklers or Saxons are equally featured.
Fazakas also had the idea to place the explanations next to each model on a rotating board, so that the information in one language would not appear before that in other languages.
The first model welcoming the park visitors is that of the Bran Castle, next they can see miniatures of well-known and important buildings, such as the Peles Castle, the Savarsin Castle, the Hunyadi Castle, the Alba Iulia Citadel, the Rasnov, Rupea and Fagaras fortresses, or the Oradea Citadel.
Also featured here are models of the cities of Sibiu, Sighisoara, Alba Iulia, Targu Secuiesc, Cluj-Napoca, and Brasov is to follow soon. Tourists can also see the defunct island Ada Kaleh, or the Govajdia blast furnace where – Fazakas explains – several iron pieces for the Eiffel Tower were cast, but also rebuilt citadels which in real life are in ruins, such as the one at Balvanyos or Odorheiu Secuiesc.
The Franciscan monastery from Sumuleu Ciuc, the Horezu Monastery, the Sambata de Sus Monastery or the Darjiu Church – the only monument in Harghita included in the UNESCO heritage – also sit on the grounds of the park, and models of other important buildings will be added, such as the Poenari Fortress, the second residence of Voievode Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), and which is said to be the real castle of Count Dracula.
The models are crafted in Budapest by Domokos Vajda, a young man born in Cristuru Secuiesc, who works both manually and with a 3D printer, and the details are made by Auróra Hajnal Németh, an artist who puts the true-life touches on the respective buildings.
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