Lăpușna: Hunting Lodge, Wooden Church and Resonance Spruces

The wooden church “Sfântul Nicolae” in Lăpușna was built in 1779 in the village of Comori and moved in 1937 to the Secuieu stream near the royal hunting lodge. It contains icons created in 1740 by Vasilașcu, a painter from Moldavia. The church therefore connects its original location in Comori with its present site on the Secuieu, while also preserving the significantly older collection of icons.

Culture

The Lăpușna hunting lodge was built between 1925 and 1926 at the request of King Ferdinand. It was completed and decorated in 1933. The construction period and later completion form part of the history of the royal estate, which has been handed down not as a single building but as a larger complex.

The royal hunting lodge at Lăpușna was used by members of the Romanian royal family. The lodge complex comprises a palace with six building sections and 23 rooms, a hunting house with 12 rooms, and more than 4 hectares of woodland. The various building sections and the woodland give the estate an extent that goes beyond the lodge building itself.

The Lăpușna hunting lodge complex lies in the middle of a fir forest. Lăpușna Monastery was founded in 1997. The lodge, wooden church and later-founded monastery place buildings from different periods side by side at this location.

Nature

The Lăpușna resonance spruce nature reserve is a forest seed reserve for the spruce species.

The forest ecosystem of the Lăpușna resonance spruces contains very rare resonance spruces. The trees are about 150 years old, have a diameter of more than 60 centimetres, and reach a height of 36 to 38 metres. The combination of their approximate age, large trunk diameter and stated height describes a forest with exceptional individual characteristics.

Water and Trails

At an altitude of 795 metres, the Păstrăvăria de la Lăpușna is located at the confluence of the Gurghiu River and its left tributary, Sebeșul Mare. The location is therefore characterised both by its elevation and by the meeting of two bodies of water.

The Păstrăvăria de la Lăpușna lies on the way to the royal hunting lodge and the wooden church “Sfântul Nicolae”. The destinations mentioned are therefore located along the same route through the Lăpușna area.

Getting There

The paved access road ends at Brădețelu; from there, an approximately 11-kilometre forest road leads through the woods towards Lăpușna. The change from the paved road to the approximately eleven-kilometre forest route marks the beginning of the woodland access section.

After rain, the forest-road access route can turn into a track passable only by ATVs and motorcycles. The condition of this section can therefore change with the weather; the access route is not described as a continuously paved road.

The royal hunting lodge at Lăpușna is usually closed. It opens when larger tourist groups request the rental of a pavilion or the entire complex. Access to the lodge is therefore subject to the stated opening rule and to a request from larger groups.

Route

The Ibănești–Lăpușna–Vârful Saca Mare route passes through rugged terrain and an especially wild landscape. Its description adds an explicitly challenging landscape section between Ibănești, Lăpușna and Vârful Saca Mare to the cultural and natural sites.

For the overarching travel overview: Ibănești Commune.