Walking in the mountains of Southern Harghita, we often lead to the well of the Vendelné. Surely everyone who has ever drawn from the spring (or has only heard of it) has wondered why such a weakly flowing, low-flowing spring is called a well, and especially who this Mrs. Vendel, after whom a spring has been named, might have been?
József Miklós answers these questions in an article about the life of Gizi Weisz, published in a November 2005 issue of the People of Harghita: ‘His father’s name was Wenceslas Vendel, and he had private property in the south of Harghita. Its meadows stretched all the way to Lucs and were surrounded on all sides by extensive pastures. In the summers, when he moved up into the mountains for a long time and set up a home in the little, time-worn harrow house, he was only plagued by grief. There is not a well of water in the area from which animals and people can quench their thirst. That's why he took his time digging a well. The sparkling crystal clear water came out of him, and all that remained was to hold him in a küpübe and supply him with a thin dripping. Afterwards, because he was still relentless in his zeal for work, he dug a trough and set it up. He was delighted to tell his wife about the harrow house: – The great work is done, the well is standing. The woman, who was rather wiry and cold-tongued, fell face to face with him, threw her hands on his hips, and said,-- – The finished well must also have a name. And do you see this laskabearer? I'll smash him in the waist if he takes the well to himself. No and no, there is no such God. The private property is yours, the well is mine. Wenceslas Vendel stood broken in front of his wife like Mrs. Markotányos. His shovel-sized palms were folded and unfolded, and his mud was still in them. He knew that the radio and the woman could not be quarreled with, and therefore he voted with his face turned to the heavens above, by acclamation: All right, damn it to him. His clenched teeth were quickly loosened because he realized the unreasonableness of such a grinning of teeth. This is how the well with good water in the Lucs region became the well of Mrs Vendel.’
Today, the well is not touched by any marked tourist trail, however, it can be traversed both by the blue stripe marking along the main ridge of the Harghita Mountains and by the blue dot marking connecting Miercurea Ciuc to the Sudden wilderness. It is easiest to approach from the direction of Lucs from the point where the ridge mark deviates from the driveway of Smoky Bath, and after leaving the side of Lucs it starts to rise on the beech side of Nagy-kő. At the bottom of the slope, the road splits, and we take the right cart road, then after 1.1 kilometers, turning slightly to the left, we reach a clearing and start to climb again. We are at an altitude of 1070 meters above sea level, in a saddle between the beech of Nagy-kő and the hills called the head of Kárász, which also forms a watershed between Nagyos-stream and its side branch, Kis-stream. There is an aesthene in the middle of the clearing, so it is advisable to take a tour in a larger group from spring to autumn on this section of the road. On the other side of the corral you can rest in the shade of a large beech tree, under which a well of water springs, equipped with a trough for watering the animals. In the public mind, this source (also) lives as Vendelné’s well – wrongly. Vendelné's real well can be found in a northerly direction, about 200 meters from here, following the carriage path, at the foot of a twin pine tree, lined with stones.
Nearest places to visit, tourist attractions: Nagy-kő beech (1,7 km – W-NW), Bilibók-puszta (1,8 km – N-NW), Lucs peat bog (1,9 km – DK), Hirtelen-puszta (3,1 km – NW), Stinky Bath of Szentimre (5,4 km – D), Castle of Harom (5,9 km – K-NW), Csihányos of Zsögödfürdő (7,4 km – NE), head of Bánya stream (7,8 km – D). Perhaps the most significant of these is the largest peat bog in Transylvania, the Lucs peat bog. Its interior is covered with tundra vegetation, home to many Ice Age remnants, many of which (such as the tiny birch – Betula nana) are the southernmost in the world. Among the peat moss we can find very valuable plants: round-leaved dewgrass (Drosera rotundifolia), cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), rosemary (Andromeda polyfolia), intoxication (Empetrum nigrum) and leguminous woolling (Eriophorum vaginatum). Constant moisture favours the following amphibians and reptiles: Carpathian, Alpine, spotted or cristatus newt (Triturus montandoni, alpinetris, vulgaris or cristatus), yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata), turf frog (Rana temporaria), brown toad (Bufo bufo), live-bearing lizard (Zootoca vivipara), viper (Vipera berus). By the way, the fauna of the moor is almost identical to that of the surrounding forests. More recently, the water of the spring is not recommended for human consumption, yet it is worth visiting for the sake of the surrounding natural attractions, or simply out of curiosity, for the location of the anecdote described above.
