Laslea (German: Grosslasseln; Hungarian: Szászszentlászló) is a commune located in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of five villages: Florești, Laslea, Mălâncrav, Nou Săsesc, and Roandola. In Romanian, Florești was known as Felța until 1950.[3]
Geography
The commune is situated towards the center of the Transylvanian Plateau. It is located in the northeastern part of Sibiu County, on the border with Mureș County. It lies on the banks of the river Laslea, which discharges into the Târnava Mare near the village Laslea.
National roadDN14[ro] runs just north of the commune. The closest cities are Sighișoara, 13km (8.1mi) to the east, and Mediaș, 28km (17mi) to the west; the county capital, Sibiu, is 83km (52mi) to the southwest.
Mălâncrav is a village in Laslea commune. An asphalt road of 13km leads to the village. In the formerly majority Transylvanian Saxon village, there still is a small community of Saxons.
The Saxon RomanesqueLutheran church has early 14th-century Gothic murals in the apse, with 15th-century murals in the nave and a 15th-century late Gothic altar.[citation needed] They constitute some of the most significant Gothic murals in Transylvania aside from those at Ghelința in Covasna County.[citation needed] In later centuries the Apafi family (descending from a certain Saxon man named Apa;[4] later a leading Hungarian noble family in Transylvania) buried their dead in the church, since they had overlordship in the village.[citation needed] In 1902, the tomb chest of György Apafi, father of Mihaly Apafi, and his family was transferred to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.[5]
In 2006, the then-Prince of Wales bought and restored two 18th-century Saxon houses in the villages of Mălâncrav and Viscri to help protect the unique way of life that has existed for hundreds of years and promote sustainable tourism.
The buildings have been sensitively restored and converted into guesthouses for tourists. They remain in keeping with the surrounding architecture and feature a number of Transylvanian antiques but with modern facilities where possible. The renovation of these buildings has helped provide a sustainable future for the people of rural Transylvania while also enabling residents to maintain their traditional way of life.[dubious–discuss]
↑Attila Szabó (ed.), Erdély, Bánság És Partium Történeti És Közigazgatási Helységnévtára. Miercurea Ciuc, 2003, Pro-Print Könyvkiadó, ISBN973-8468-01-9
