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One of the best places for music in this area is the village of Sic , 70km northeast of Cluj; road and rail routes head to nearby Gherla , from where buses will take you the remaining 20km southeast to Sic. En route to Gherla, both road and rail line pass through Bontida (Bonchida), home to the great Baroque palace of the Banffy family; known as the "Versailles of Transylvania" until it was burnt by the retreating Germans in 1945, the palace is only now being restored. It's just about visible from the railway or the DN1C, and it's a pleasant walk across the fields from Bontida station. GHERLA (Neuschloss) has been a centre of Armenian settlement since 1672 and was once called Armenopolis; carved Armenian family crests are still visible over many doorways. The lurid green Baroque Armeno-Catholic cathedral, built between 1748 and 1804, stands on Piata Libertatii opposite the town's one hotel , the Coroana (tel 064/241 927; $6-10), which is straight ahead of you as you head into town from the station. To the right, just before the hotel, is the town museum , which houses its collection of Armenian manuscripts and icons on glass behind a superb gateway at Str. Mihai Viteazul 6. The tradition of painting icons on glass derives from fourteenth-century Venice, from where it spread through the mountains of the Tyrol and Bohemia to the Carpathians, but popular tradition ascribes it to an icon of the Virgin, painted in 1681, which reputedly shed tears in the Monastery of Nicula, just east of Gherla. Immediately south of Gherla is the small spa of Baile Baita Gherla where basic cabins and rooms (under $6) are available at Str. Clujului 26. SIC (Szek), reached by bus (seven a day) from Gherla's bus station, spreads over several hills, with a number of churches and municipal buildings testifying to its former importance as a centre of salt mining. There's a high proportion of Magyars here and some Gypsies, their dwellings neatly thatched and painted blue. In defiance of Ceausescu's breeding policies, villagers here produced only one child per family, so as not to divide their land holdings further; as a result the population is actually shrinking. Sic is considered to be a kind of repository of Hungarian folk culture. Certainly, the Magyars here wear costumes , the like of which have long disappeared into museums in Hungary - the men in narrow-brimmed, tall straw hats and blue waistcoats and the women in leather waistcoats and black headscarves embroidered with flowers, blouses and full red pleated skirts. There are also many Adventists here, whose holy day is Saturday, when they promenade through the village in their plainer costume. It's said that every street in Sic has its own band, typically playing traditional Transylvanian dance music . At weekends there are often weddings, inspiring a day-long stream of music. Other excellent bands can be found in the villages of Palatca (Magyarpalatka), Vaida-Camaras (Vajdakamaras), Cojocna (Kolozs), Suatu (Magyarszovat) and Soporu de Campie (Mezoszopor), all off the Reghin road to the east of Cluj
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