Csíky-Garden Dendrological Park Gheorgheni

The Csíky-Garden dendrological park was founded in 1884 by lawyer dr. Csíky Dénes. Dénes was the descendant of a wealthy Armenian family. Botanics was his passion and his dream was to arrange his own Arboretum, a dendrological park. To accomplish his dream, the fortune he inherited from his family came quite handy. 

He, then, bought at the North-Eastern corner of the town a territory with the best springs surfacing from the belly of the earth. On the 16 ha territory he bought, he worked till the year 1909 to fully accomplish his dream and become a happy owner of a dendrological park. 

He planted 185 of species of trees and bushes, proving to the locals that even here, in the harsh climate of an Intra-Carpathian Basin not only the omnipresent fir and pine tree can survive, but also other species from far away lands. The park has curative, benefic effects thanks to its clean springs and fresh air, therefore between 1927-1941 a sanatorium for treating pulmonary diseases functioned. After the second Great War, starting from 1947 children coming from families with a history of pulmonary problems were treated. By the time his park was declared a protected area in 1980, Dénes Csiky has long passed away, donating the park to the care of the town council. With this occasion an inventory of the species found in the garden was carried out, finding and listing 100 species of those planted by the founder of the park. Sadly, the interval between 1980-1993 has been a dark spot in the history of the park, when due to various reasons the Csiky-Garden was left to God's care. After 1993, the task of reconditioning the Arboretum was taken over by the following actors involved: Naturaland Foundation, the Gheorgheni Extension of the Babes-Bolyai University based in Cluj, St. Benedict Study Center and the Salamon Ernő High School with the help of external funds. The local council, in 2008, decided to rent the territory to the Geography Faculty- Gheorgheni Extension that has been functioning in the park since 1997, anyway. In 2005, the dendrological park was declared a national reserve.

A curiosity in the park is the presence of two Redwood giant saplings, the only ones in Harghita county. They were bought from Switzerland a couple a years ago, they were left in Zetea to become acclimatized with the weather conditions for a year and now they are healthily growing with 20 cm each year.