Vlaha is the second most populous village in the municipality of Săvădisla, County of Cluj, Romania. It takes its name from the Fenes stream that flowed through the settlement. The word ‘fenes’ is derived by linguists from the Hungarian verb fen, meaning water in which there are stones suitable for grinding.
Since 1998, Vlaha has been one of the venues of the St. Stephen’s Day Folk Dance Festival. Every year, folk dance groups from all over Europe parade through its streets and perform on the open-air stage in front of the Culture Centre. On the outskirts of the village, sculptor Ernő Bartha has created a sculpture park of monumental hay sculptures, which hosts cultural events several times a year.
The first written record of the village dates from 1263, when it was known as Fenes, and from 1332 it is mentioned in papal documents as Olafenes, Olaufenes, Valahfenes. It was distinguished from other settlements along the Fenes stream, Szászfenes and Kisfenes, by the Olach (Valah, Romanian) vernacular name. From the middle of the 19th century the name of the settlement was changed to Ófenes from 1889 to Magyarfenes (Hungarian Fenes). The Romanian name of the village appears in documents from 1733 in the form Vlaha, Blaha, Blahu, and in the early 20th century also as Feneșul Unguresc.