Brief presentation of Toplita

     Toplita (hun Maroshévíz) is located in Transylvania on the upper Mures (Maros) region, more precisely in the northern corner of Harghita (Hargita) County. It's situated on a 650 m altitude above sea level, on the Giurgiului (Gyergyói) plain between the Giurgiului, Gurghiului (Görgényi) and Cãlimani (Kelemen) mountains. Nearest towns are: Borsec (Borszék) 26 km, Gheorgheni (Gyergyószentmiklós) 38 km, Reghin (Szászrégen) 69 km.
     The settlement was founded in 1567 by Petrichevitch Horváth Kozma on the land owned by Bánffy Pál, he gave land to 3 moldavian peasant families and named the place Taplócza.
     Along the centuries our little settlement had multiple name changes: Taplócza, Toplicza, Gyergyó-Toplicza, from February 3, 1861 Oláh-Toplicza, then from January 1, 1907 Maroshévíz until 1918 when it received the Toplita Românã official name, although the Maroshévíz name can be found on more documents along with Toplita Românã.
     This region was Simon Bán's property until 1228, then passed on to the Bánffy family, who managed to keep their enormous properties until 1945.
      In 1658 Gyergyó-Toplita was entirely destroyed by moldavian units led by Pintea. After 1660 the Bánffys brought on these lands 391 romanian peasant families from Deda.
     Around 1710 rafting started on the Mures river, due to this profitable enterprise Toplita and its inhabitants started growing and evolving on both material and spiritual level.
     The results of the first European census, ordered by Joseph IInd which took place in Toplita on nov. 20th 1785, are the following: there were 227 farms, 23 free and 231 thrall families whom belonged to 22 lairds. Baron Bornemissza János owned most of these families (52), then Baron Kemény Simon (30), and Count Teleki Mihály (18).
     Let's jump trough time a few decades to 1868 when 8 "parraedium"s belonged to Toplita, these were: Cãlimãnel (Kelemenjel), Mermezeu (Vérmezõ), Ciobotani (Csobortyány),Mãnãstirea (Monasteria), Vâgani (Vegány), Moglãnesti (Moglanyest), Plopis (Ploptyi) and Mãgherus (Mogyoros), at the time Valea (Valya) was already part of the settlement.
     During the World War I. Toplita and its periphery witnessed cruel fights, the Romanian monument in Secu (Szék-patak) is the tomb of 771 romanian soldiers, and in the Hungarian Heroes Cemetary in Zencani (Zsákhegy) 450 soldiers were buried.
In 1952 Toplita was declared Town.
     Some other facts: in 1658 it was built the Mãnãstirea Doamnei church; in 1847 the Sf. Ilie monastery; between sept. 22 1867 and aug. 21 1869 it was built a papist church in the vicinity of an old wooden church; between 1867 and 1903 the orthodox church was built; in 1870 a Papistic Denominational School was founded; in 1895 the calvinistic church was built; in 1896 a Hungarian State School was founded in the Valea (Vajla) section of the town; between 1903 and 1907 the Urmánczy castle was built (today the town's Etnographical Museum); between 1928 and 1929 it was built a greek catholic church in the Cornisa (Somos) section of the town, this church was built to replace an older wooden church (built in 1777) which was moved to the nearby Gãlãutas (Galócas) village.
     The lions of Toplita the Bánffy (Bradul) pleasure resort, which is situated at 677,2 m above sea level, here you can find a bogie with mineral water with temperature of 27^oC; the Urmánczy bogie which was bought by the Urmánczys from the Lázár family (from Lãzarea [Szárhegy]) around 1870 is located on an altitude of 653,8 m above sea level, and its water (also mineral) has a temperature of 26^oC.
Notorious people born in Toplita: Dr. Urmánczy Nándor (1868-1940) was a congressman during 16 years, he is the founder and single president of the "Ereklyés Országzászló" foundation.
Dr. Miron Cristea (1868-1939): Romania's first patriarch, and Romania's Prime Minister between 1938 and 1939.