Where is the Country of Lapus?

   The region lies in the North-Eastern part of the Romanian ethnical teritory and belongs to the District of Maramures, together with the other 4 regions mentioned above.   The Country of Lapus, seems to be supported by three glorious stone copings the Tibles Mountains: Arcer-1830m, Tibles-1839m & Brad-1840m, making up a summit directioned

North-West and South-East.
The nowadays habitations look like a row of beads strung on the thread of the Lapus River and is streams.     The Country of Lapus overlaps as a physical & geographical unit with the hydrographical field of the streams of Lapus River. The Country of Lapus was created by the splitting and diving of an ancient crystal massif that used to bound Apuseni Mountains and Rodna Mountains. The mineral cover is made up of red clay, limestone, conglomerated glifstone.The volcanic matter forms the borders of this region. The most important hills are: The Hill of the Raven  and The Big Hill. Step by step one reaches The Lapus Meadow.

Within the Volcanic Mountains, which make up a kind of ceiling, the country of Lapus holds a temperate-continental climate, recording temperatures on a scale from -38 centigrade(1928) to +35 centigrade(1993). The brown soils of the hills are used as ground for cereal culture, pastures, hay fields and tree culture. The mountains soils allow basically these the beech forests, oak, fir-tree forests. The animals living in these

 woods are: wolves, birds, deer, wild pigs, hares, martens and a great variety of birds.  As for the ethymological origin of the term 'Lapus', there are to be taken into account several possibilities; it may  come from the Latin adjective lapos, with the meaning of smooth, flat, or lepus-rabbit or lapis-stone or the old Romanian term for weed-Lapus.
      The oldest documentary certification goes back to 1070 and refers to the Lapus River and the next one with the same reference dates on 1231. In 1315 the region is registered under the name of Terra Lapus.(The Country of Lapus)
      The archaeological research taking place in this region shows that the Country of Lapus has been inhabited since the old times, reaching at a certain moment a quite high level of civilisation. Related to the Bronze Era, there has been discovered evidence of 2 culture groups: The Lapus group & the Upper Luciu group that bring information about the funeral ritual, about the main occupation of the native people, viz. animal breeding and also that they knew how to obtain the necessary tools needed for the survival, out of raw material.
In the middle of the Country of Lapus, lies a small town-Targu Lapus- from where four large roads head for the four points of the compass..
       The traditional jobs of the inhabitants are: farming, animal breeding, the work in the woods, bee-keeping, hunting, pottery, timber-making, egg-painting.
       The holidays calendar is the Christian one(Orthodox) but also the 'old women's ' one. The holidays flow in a circular rhythm, defining the two-planned peasant-like spirituality, directed to transcendence and transience.   The days hold certain meanings and the nights bring along interdictions. The peasants know signs or the zodiac, thinking about their children's fate. The girls got to the so-called 'social' and call their lads by magic crafts for destiny. The individual life here is a link from the chain of the cosmically existence.
       The people living in the Country of Lapus like to dance and sing. When celebrating a Christian Holiday they  wear their traditional clothing amazing in its variety of colours and especially the women's popular dressing remains a true lesson of aesthetics. There are a lot of churches and monasteries some older, some newer, as a proof of the strong faith of the people.