Recorded 1315 as Terra Lăpuș, the population is Romanian apart from one Hungarian village (Dămăcușeni). The ethnography is an interference zone between Maramureș and Transylvania, and the women’s costume aprons are similar to the older mountain styles, such as found in the Apusenii mountains. In general the peasant farmers (iobagi) lived in the lower parts of the villages and the land owners (nemesi) in the upper parts.