Lazarea

Lăzarea (in Hungarian Gyergyószárhegy) is a commune in Harghita county, Romania. It is situated northwards, 5 km from Gheorgheni, in the south part of the Szármány mountain. Its name comes probably from the Szár mountain.

The history of the commune is closely connected to the history of the Lázár family. The castle has been built in several phases, between 1450 and 1532. In 1631 the castle was widened with the construction of bastions and defensive walls, it was built up to a magnificient renaissance mansion. It became one of the most important military-magisterial centres of Szeklerland. Here spent a period of his childhood  Bethlen Gábor, Prince of Transylvania. On the outskirts of the village a handful of Szekler women, friars and boys defeated and massacred the outnumbering Tatar and Moldavian troops in the year 1658. The dead were buried under the so-called Tatárdomb. The commemorative tablet, set in 1908, reminds of this event. In 1665 Lázár István gave a piece of land for the Franciscan friars, where they built a chapel. Friar Kájoni János from Csíksomlyó (was buried here in 1687), commissioned the enlarging of the chapel into a church and monastery, a project finished only in the 19th century, as it was burnt to ashes  to ashes in 1707 and in 1748 and 1842. The castle shared the same fate, parts of the castle burnt down and reconstructed each time.  

The village can boast with one of Transylvania's most valuable Renaissance castle, the most important and the only Roman Catholic convent and monastery church in the Gheorgheni Basin, the only medieval parish church in the region which has a sanctuary that still preserves the Gothic features. Furthermore the village hosts an art camp and a sculpture park. A renowned product of the settlement is the cabbage grown organically here.