On the hill of Ozd, you can see the rectangular castle with corner bastions built in Gothic style in 1682 by Pekri Lőrinc, the man of Rakoczi Ferenc II. In 1732 it was rebuilt, after the attack of the lobons, which burned the castle, leaving only the bastions of the corners untouched. The castle was rebuilt by Radák Ádám, Pekri's son-in-law. The last owner of the castle, surrounded by forest, famous for the park and the lake in front of him, was Baroness Teleki Ilona, who left the country because of nationalization in 1945.
The building housed kindergarten, school, house of culture was and seat CAP, which remained in the castle until its destruction. After89 the castle was returned to Mrs Jude Mária, an heiress from France.
Restitution after she donated castle Bonus Pastor Foundation, which decided to renovate the building and annexes nearby. Renovation comes with substantial external help. The works are in progress.
https://www.welcometoromania.eu/

Ozd Pekri-Radak castle

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On the main square of Blaj stands the former Bagdi Castle, which since 1738 (with a small interruption in the 20th century) functions as the Greek Catholic Archbishop's Palace. The castle was built in 1534-1535 by György Bagdi, who designed a T-shaped residential tower with three floors. The entrance was reinforced with a fire-line.
In 1617 the building was known as the hunting seat of Gábor Bethlen. The Prince of Transylvania reconditioned the castle and the church standing in the garden as well and in 1619 donated it to Simon Pécsi, Chancellor of Transylvania. The new owner started renovating the castle and repaired the nearly one hundred years old Protestant Church too. The inscription of a marble plaque right above the church doors is an excellent evidence for this: „Hic iter est, veniant sitientes bibere, lymhos, post quas non ultra concutit atra sitis. A.D. 1629” On December 14th, 1664 Anna Bornemissza, the wife of Mihály Apafi (Prince of Transylvania) moved into the castle. On October 27th 1687 a very important agreement had been signed in this building between the Habsburg Empire and the Transylvanian Parliament, pursuant to which Transylvania was officially attached to the Habsburg Empire. On this occasion Charles, Duke of Lorraine represented the emperor and Mihály Teleki, Chancellor represented the Transylvanian Assembly.
In 1737 Charles III donated the estate to the Greek Catholic Church and in the next year Inocentiu Micu Klein used the building as the bishop’s residence. Since then the castle had undergone various construction projects, in 1842 it was expanded with a north wing as well.
https://castleintransylvania.ro/

Bagdi Castle (Blaj)

Once in Cetatea de Baltă, Alba County, on the banks of Târnava Mică and discovering Bethlen-Haller Castle that seems to guard the entire horizon, we cannot fail to notice the new life that it has. Our hearts are filled with gratitude, noticing that we can easily get lost in a landscape similar to France or Italy. The beautiful reborn Bethlen-Haller Castle, its details, the order and the surrounding air.
We are guided with good energy, smiles and a lot of passion by Bogdana. As we love the places that breathe through their people, we understand from the beginning that we will be very happy to return.
The journey at Bethlen-Haller Castle begins with a tour. It has a troubled history, unknown sometimes. Similar to the styles in which it was built (Renaissance, Baroque, avant-garde and extravagant) so are its days, owners, stories. Typically Renaissance built, the four-tower Bethlen-Haller Castle was built between 1615-1624 by Miklos Bethlen, Chancellor of Transylvania. However, it has undergone numerous transformations over time. Between 1769-1773 it was renovated in Baroque style. It was bought from the Tax Office, sold, bet and lost at card game, passing from the possession of Bethlen family to Haller family. It was like this starting with the second half of the 19th century, until the year of expropriation, 1948.
During the communist period, Bethlen-Haller Castle became vinification section, while the original furniture, decorations and collectibles disappeared or were destroyed. After 1989, it was claimed and returned to Haller family, then bought by Necşulescu family, who restored it. It became after a symbol of Jidvei and in 2020 the family opened it completely for the public.
We are grateful for the generous tour, for the small imperfections we observe, which make Bethlen-Haller Castle more beautiful. In one of the towers there is an old wooden staircase. Hanging on the walls surrounding the staircase we see old clocks, one for each birthday celebration of the owner. Also it is said that at the base of the stairs, the old door would have been the passage to a secret tunnel that connected the two castles of the Bethlen family. It is this one and the one in Sânmiclăuș.
We also find out that the current objects and paintings inside Bethlen-Haller Castle have been collected over time from various collections. Some of the rooms have been painted by students from the University of Arts. However, one of the painted walls has only an outline, without a completed model, a symbol of the beauty of imperfection, the specificity of this place. We stop next to an old piano, the only object left in the castle from the period when it became a warehouse. Made in Vienna, today it looks tired, completely out of tune, but with a symbolic beauty, that only a trial can offer as gift. We can feel the emotion while touching it.
Bethlen-Haller Castle is, therefore, a story. It needs to be discovered in peace, understood, valued. It has many corners, windows, details that are worth sniffing in a personal rhythm. We arrive to our room, one of the four currently available and renovated. Time travel, tall windows under which a beautiful field and sunset appear, perfect furniture, white bedding, painted walls and an elegant bathtub, romantically surrounded by a transparent curtain. For a moment you are there, back in time.
On the first day we better understood the history and current story of Jidvei wineries. We were glad to find out so many new things. Jidvei has 2500 ha of vineyard, the largest single-owner area in Europe, processing over 25 million kg of grapes annually. At the same time, it inaugurated the first gravitational winery in Europe and today it produces 54 different labels. Jidvei has four wineries, in Jidvei, Tăuni, Blaj and Bălcaciu. The storage capacity is over 35 million liters. Jidvei winery, built in 1974, has the largest storage capacity, with a modern fermentation technology, fully automated. Blaj, founded in 1989, hosts the oldest wines. Bălcaciu (1958) has the sparkling wines and wine distillates. Established in 2014, Tăuni is unique, thanks to fermentation and storage tanks, equipment and facilities, modern technologies. It uses gravitational energy, for minimal intervention in the winemaking process.
https://romanian-romance.com/

Bethlen-Haller Castle

The castle was built by Bethlen Miklos between 1667-1683. It used to be surrounded by a double stone wall, five bastions and a moat. Bethlen Miklos' daughter Agnes married count Kemeny Zsigmond here in 1719. In 1856 the castle became the property of the Bruckenthal family. They restored the building and opened an agricultural school in it. The communist regime gave the castle to the state owned agricultural institution, and used the luxury rooms to accommodate the families of young engineers and milk-men coming from other parts of the country.
The castle was built by Bethlen Miklos between 1667-1683. It used to be surrounded by a double stone wall, five bastions and a moat. Bethlen Miklos' daughter Agnes married count Kemeny Zsigmond here in 1719. In 1856 the castle became the property of the Bruckenthal family. They restored the building and opened an agricultural school in it. The communist regime gave the castle to the state owned agricultural institution, and used the luxury rooms to accommodate the families of young engineers and milk-men coming from other parts of the country.In a span of 50 years the castle functioned as kindergarten, prison, canteen, butcher's shop and champagne section, this leading to the destruction of all beautiful frescos and stuccos.
The spiral stairs that once were amazing with all those statues are now on the verge of collapse, and so is the balcony. The void that lies behind the broken windows is now protected by a huge lock on a rusty chain, but this does not protect the building against one archenemy: time.
https://www.welcometoromania.eu/

Sânmiclăuș Bethlen castle

The castel built in 1545 by Gáspár Bogáti in Renaissance style is a rectangular structure with corner towers. It was one of Transylvania's most comfortable castles, with fortress walls and a water-filled moat.
After the Battle of Sânpaul in 1575, István Báthory, prince of Transylvania defeated the nobles fighting along Gáspár Bekes, executed Gáspár Bogáthy and the town of Iernut was confiscated for the treasury of Transylvania. In 1587 the castle was donated by Zsigmond Báthory to Ferenc Kendi, but after two years he was executed too. The new owner of the castle, Boldizsár Kornis was also executed in 1610, but the building remained the property of the Kornis family. After another confiscation, Gábor Bethlen, prince of Transylvania also initiated a series of transformations on the building.
The castle was bought in 1649 by György Rákóczi II, prince of Transylvania, he rebuilt the castle after the plans of the Venetian architect, Agostino Serena. This building phase was commemorated by the inscription on the northern gate: “AUGUSTINUS SERENA ARCHITECTUS VENETUS OPERA FECIT”. After the lost battle of Florești against the Ottomans the castle became the property of the new princess, Anna Bornemissza. The castle was then inherited by his son Mihály Apafi II, then by his widow, Kata Bethlen. During the rule of the prince of Transylvania, Mihály Apafi II, 15 diets of the Transylvanian nobility took place here. The castle was taken from the Habsburgs by Rákóczi's Kuruc troops in 1703. Ferenc Rákóczi II stopped here in 1707, on his way to Târgu Mureş, where he was to be crowned Prince of Transylvania. After the death of the princess, in 1758, the castle became the property of the treasury. In 1764 the building was bought by chancellor Miklós Bethlen from the treasury. In 1802 the castle's shingled roof burned down due to an unintentional firearm shooting of a bailiff. The damaged roof was replaced with a smaller, more simple roof. The castle's new gate building, the Snake House was built in the second half of the 18th century, with snake decorations - motif taken from the escutcheon of the Bethlen family. Until 1885 the castle belonged to the Bethlen family, when Márk Bethlen lost the castle to Count Jenő Haller during a card game. The winner donated the estate to the Roman-Catholic Church of Transylvania. The Roman-Catholic Status of Transylvania bought the estate in 1887 and renovated it partly. They demolished the corrals and (they also) filled the moat with soil. At that time the castle was the property of the Roman-Catholic Church of Alba-Iulia. The estate was nationalized in 1948, and was transformed it into a model farm and an agricultural school during the 1990’s. The separate gate building, the Snake House, was restored in the first half of the 1960’s and became a memorial house.
Today the castle is in a ruinous condition: its walls and roof are falling down. On 18th March 2012 the roof of the bastion burned down.
https://castleintransylvania.ro/

Kornis-Rákóczi-Bethlen Castel in Iernut

Castle Haller it's the first Transylvanian renovated castle, that reflects the elegancy of the old times.
Situated at only 22 km from Targu Mures on the left side of the Mures river, it's on the right side of the E60 national road, from Targu Mures to Cluj Napoca, and 9 km away from the Targu Mures International Airport .
The castle was built on the 17th century in classicist baroque style. In the '90 the castle hosted many institutions with different activities (school, kindergarden, boarding school, mill, bakery etc), and from 2012 it opened the gates as hotel, restaurant and wine cellary.
Castle Haller gives you the best conditions to spend a business or tourist stay , beeing the perfect location for team buildings, company parties, themed parties, conferences, wine tasting but is also an elegant choice for weddings, baptisms, seminars, engagement parties, receptions, festive dinner, concerts.
The restaurant and conference room are at the first floor. The two halls have a capacity for 120 person, for organizing different events.
When it comes to a la carte menu, the restaurant offers enough space for 60 person, a place where we welcome you with delicious transilvanian and international specialties from our kitchen.
For organizing different meeting, the conference room stays at your disposal with a hall for 40 person.
In the Castle's inside, 14 rooms found their place, from which 1 suite and 13 double rooms, all decorated with old fashion furniture.
The rooms take you back to the ancient time of nobility, combining perfectly with the nowadays modern facilities.
In the Castle's basement, there is an ancient wine cellar for 100 person, the ideal place for wine tastings, different evenings and other important events.
During the summer, taking advantage of the beautiful nature, we wait our client with and exterior terace in our garden.
From 2015 we have enriched with a Spa center (natural salt water pool, jaccuzi, sauna, salt room, massage, child pool with slide, exterior salt water pail ), offering our clients a more relaxing experience, a body and soul healing. The interesting thing, is that the salted water is obtained from drilling from the Castle's own yard.
https://castelhaller.ro/

Castle Haller

The church in Boian was erected around the year 1400, but it is difficult to determine which parts of the initial construction have been preserved to this day. Nevertheless, it is known that around 1500 the religious edifice was fortified, a defence level being built above the chancel. The fortification wall was designed to include a parapet walk, partly built on two levels and strengthened by a gate tower. The latter also served as a bell tower having its entrance protected by a portcullis (sliding wooden lattice reinforced with iron). Another detail that is worth mentioning is the decoration of the cornice with angled bricks, a method often used for the Orthodox churches in Moldavia and Muntenia regions.
Furthermore, on both gate tower and northern entrance of the church one can find the coat of arms of the Moldavian prince Stephan the Great, to whose fief Boian briefly belonged.
Place and surroundings
It is utterly uncommon to find the symbol of the ureox at the entrance to an Evangelic church. And yet, in Boian, on the Northern portal of the fortified church, one can see the symbol of Moldavia carved in the shape of the relief of two ureox heads. Unlike most of the Saxon villages, this place was not part of the Royal Land (a self-administered Saxon territory), but it was part of The County of Cetatea de Baltă (Moorland Fortress). The colonists on the Royal Land were loyal only to the Hungarian king and used to enjoy a special status and privileges, while the inhabitants of the counties, Hungarian admininistrative areas, were all serfs under the authority of the feudal lord.
In 1498, Matei Corvin, king of Hungary, offered The County of the Moorland Fortress as a gift to the Moldavian prince Stephan the Great. The prince supported the completion of the massive fortification around the sacred church, fact that is suggested by the presence of his coat of arms on the wall – the ureox head.
https://kirchenburgen.org/

Boian fortified church

This medieval building located in Uioara de Sus (village under Ocna Mures administration) was built at the turn of the 13th century under orders received from hungarian royalty in order to protect the nearby salt mine. It is certified by historical documents since 1290, appearing under the name "Castrum Novum" ("The New Castle"), suggesting previous existence of another fortification on the same spot that is believed to be dated in 10th or 11th century.
Beginning with the 15th century the castle and the annexes had many owners, till the year 1649 when they were donated fo Mikes family. In 1742 the residence was rebuilt in baroque style. The only source of information on how the building would look in the eighteenth century is a painting by Joseph Neuhauser in 1791, that is found today at the National Art Museum in Cluj. The building appears as a compact volume with two levels and a high roof, to which are attached a gate tower and a hexagonal corner tower. The facade is treated unit with specific transylvania baroque plaster decorations.
During the 1848 revolution the building was almost completely destroyed by fire. It was bought in 1854 by the count Miko Imre - governor of Transylvania and founder of the Transylvania Museum Society. After the pass of Miko family the castle gets in the Teleki family possession.
Inside the courtyard there is a wine cellar and a chapel, which was originally equipped with an organ. At the initiative of the Teleki family, around the castle was built a park with walkways and trees, including naturalized species, some arboretum rarities.
Old folks in the village talk about the legend of a ghost haunting the local Teleki castle. The story took place in the period of the Second World War. A few Russians entered the castle cellar wich was filled with barrels of wine, where they got drunk. Wasted drunk, they began firing weapons at the huge barrels, so thousands of liters of wine were poured in the basement of the castle and the russians drowned. People say that all this happened because of the ghots in the cellar.
Today the building is in an advanced state of decay and is in the process of restitution to Teleki family.
https://m.facebook.com/

Teleki Castle in Uioara de Sus

The construction of the first castle here was commissioned by Alárdi Ferenc in the 16th century. In 1575, the armies of Báthori István, suzerain of Transylvania, caused serious damage to the castle. In 1610, the Haller family, originating from Nürnberg, commissioned the construction of a new castle, made from the stones of the ruins already laying there. The castle, commissioned to be constructed by Haller István, was eventually finished by his son, János, in 1674. This building was destroyed during the Rákóczi-revolution.
The baroque structure with a U-shaped layout, the ruins of which can be seen today, was raised by Haller Gábor in 1760. The style is very similar to that of the Grassalkovich Castle in Gödöllő. This can be explained by the close connection between the two families. A row of arches stretches along the facade facing the courtyard. The most emphasised feature of the building is along the centre of the building's axis, similar to a pavilion. This was once covered by a spectacular baroque roof, and the whole part was accentuated by a risalit on three axes. The castle was once surrounded by a sumptuous french garden consisting of smaller gardens, small houses, stone tables and ponds.
The Haller family owned the estate up to 1945, when the communist powers took over. Following the deportation of the owners, the castle served as a place for apartments, schools and storage units. Its interiors – furniture, expensive carpets, pieces of fine art – went missing or got destroyed. Eventually, all maintenance of the building stopped and anything of value got stolen. Every wooden part, be it it pillar, door frame or parquet ended up being used up as firewood; the tiles from the roof were stolen, the stoves destroyed. The park has decayed into an unrecognisable state.
Property status: after the changes of 1989 and a decade-long lawsuit, the inheritors of the Haller family: Haller Ilona and her husband, regained the ancestral castle and eventually donated it to the Roman-Catholic Archdiocese of Alba Iulia/Gyulafehérvár.
https://castleintransylvania.ro/

Haller Sastle in Sânpaul

The church was built in the 15th century by the local Saxon community. A century later, it was fortified by adding a precinct wall and the defence towers.
After the 1300s, Bazna was taken over by the Mediaş Seat as a free village, as certified by the documents from those days. In the choir the church still hosts a 1504 tabernacle with a representation of Jesus. A not so common feature is that the belfry which also operates as a gate tower still hosts three bells from the 14th - 15th century. Many bells of the Saxon fortified churches were melted during the First World War to make warfare equipment. The ones from Bazna are among the very few which “escaped” melting.
http://www.sibiu-turism.ro/

The fortified church from Bazna

The fortified church is located on the main street of the village. In the village center a church existed around 1420, which was secured with a ring wall, a gate tower, and three defence towers in the course of the 15th century. Beside the gate tower, the north-eastern tower has also been preserved until today. At the end of the 15th century the church was enlarged with a bell tower, which shows a seven-fold staggered funnel-shaped portal. Shortly afterwards the church was fortified. Above the hall of the church and above the bell tower a defence level rests on buttresses. In the 18th and 19th century it was gradually removed, but the bell tower was rebuilt in 1973. The existing pew in the chancel dated 1533, is one of the most valuable of its kind in Transylvania.
Place and surroundings
Regardless of the moment in which the fortress is looked at, in the fresh morning light, under the bright sunlight in the middle of the day or in the soft fog of dusk, its walls seem to have been made of history and legends. Built on the location of an old basilica, the church impresses due to its dimensions and rich ornamentation. Both west and south portals adorned with high quality stone carvings are counted among the best-made stone art works in Transylvania. Fragments of the once lush mural paintings inside the church, a representation of the Apocalypse, were revealed on the northern wall. An organ built in 1804 by Samuel Metz rests on its wooden gallery. Impressive are the eroded drolleries on the chancel, strange masks that have been interpreted both as saints and as demons.
https://kirchenburgen.org/