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VILLAGES AROUND
HUEDIN |
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From Huedin, a minor road heads 9km south to the village of Calata (Nagykalota),
where on Sundays the Magyar population still wear their home-made folk
costumes , and on to the nearby village of Calatele (Kiskalota), where
you'll see carved wooden homesteads. Sixteen kilometres beyond (connected
to Huedin by daily three buses) is BELIS (Jósikafalva), where a resort (tel
064/116 905) is sited beside the artificial Lake Fântânele: it comprises
two identical two-star hotels (the Bianca and the Radu ; both tel
064/432 242 or 254 183), and a handful of homestays (bookable through
Antrec in Cluj). Youth hostel accommodation is also available (May-Sept)
at the Popas Turistic Bradet (tel 064/147 206; under $6), right next to
the resort; there's no campsite but the hotels will allow you to pitch a
tent. The new Cabana Mihat (under $6) is a couple of kilometres north at
Dealul Negru .
MANASTIRENI (Magyargyeromonostor) lies to the southeast of Huedin, on a
minor road south from the DN1. The village has a lovely thirteenth-century
walled church whose gallery, pews and ceiling were beautifully painted
in the eighteenth century; homestays can be arranged here through Green
Mountain Holidays. Just west of here is Valeni (Magyarvalkó), where many
of the houses have decorated mouldings. Its thirteenth-century Calvinist
church has a wonderful hill-top setting and a collection of typically
Magyar carved wooden graveposts.
In the valleys to the north of Huedin there are half a dozen villages
with striking wooden churches - examples of the Gothic-inspired wooden
churches which once reared above peasant settlements from the Tisa to
the Carpathians. The most spectacular, and the nearest to Huedin, towers
over Fildu de Sus (Felsófüld), a small village reached by a 10km track
west from Fildu de Jos (Alsófüld) on the Huedin-Zalau road; two buses a
day run from Huedin to Fildu de Sus, and Huedin-Zalau buses pass through
Fildu de Jos. Built in 1727, the church was painted in 1860, with scenes
of Daniel in the den with some wonderful grinning lions. The oldest of
the wooden churches, erected during the sixteenth century, is at Zimbor
(Magyarzsombor), a further 20km north along the Huedin-Zalau road. Later
churches show developing flourishes, such as the purely decorative
arcades at Sânmihaiu Almasului (Almásszentmihály), 5km north of Zimbor.
From here a minor road heads north to Jibou, passing through Hida (Hídalmás)
after 4km, and Racâs (Almásrákos), a further 6km north, whose churches
are distinguished by carved columns and old murals.
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