Sofronea village is located in Arad county, 20 km from Battonya (Hungary), between Arad city (Romania) and Varjas (Hungary). The castle used to belong to Purgly János, the father-in-law of Horthy Miklós. The first part of the castle was built in 1789. Today, the estate is administered by the "Humanitas Gura Popii" Foundation, who supposedly have spent 2,5 million Euros for its restauration. Behind the castle there is a functioning thermal bath.The foundation plans to invest in establishing and equipping a conference center in the castle buildign itself.
https://castleintransylvania.ro/

Purgly Castle

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The Arad Administrative Palace is an historic building located in Arad, Romania. It houses the city hall and the prefecture.
History
The initial location of the town hall was in the Avram Iancu Square from the 17th century. Following the development of the city and the shift of the center from Avram Iancu to the new areas, the city council decided to build another one closer to the new core of the city. They hired the Budapestan architect Ödön Lechner, who came up with a design. Due to financial problems, the project was found impossible to build. After that they hired another architect, Ferenc Pekar who modified the blueprints, cutting out some of the elements. Built between 1872 and 1876, it was inaugurated in 1877.
Architecture
Its tower is reminiscent of the Flemish town halls and the ornamentation draws from the Flemish renaissance. The timepiece was brought from Switzerland in the year of the inauguration and it still is functional. The stained glass were painted by the Aradean artist Sever Frentiu and they represented the seasons.

Arad Administrative Palace

The Cultural Palace is one of the most representative buildings in the city of Arad. The impressive building was built between 1911-1913. Today, the Cultural Palace hosts the Museum compound and The State Philharmonic Orchestra of Arad.
History
The construction of the building was initiated in 1901, by the Kölcsey Cultural Society from Arad, which started the procedures in order to build an edifice which would host the local museum, the city library and a concert hall.
Architect Ludovic Szantay from Arad was chosen to draft a plan of the building. The current place was decided upon and, after its final approval, the preparations for the building of the palace began. Due to the lack of sufficient funds, works were delayed until 1910. In the autumn of 1912, the construction was almost finished and a part of the museum’s collections had already been moved to the new chambers of the building.
The festive inauguration took place on the 25h of October 1913. On this occasion, the Philharmonic of Arad was invited for a festive symphonic concert in the grand hall of the palace, the concert including works by Schubert, Goldmark, Bizet and Beethoven. During the following period, the public of Arad witnessed many Romanian and foreign music personalities perform on stage, including the great composer and violinist George Enescu among them.
Nowadays, the building of the Palace of Culture hosts the headquarters of Arad’s Museum Compound, that of the Marriage Registration Hall of the City of Arad and of the State Philharmonic.
Architecture
The building displays a wide variety of styles. The Neo-Classical façade is decorated with a pediment supported by massive Corinthian pillars, on top of which a massive tower is situated. The lateral wings are dominated by elements of the Italian Renaissance style. In the backside, isolated gothic elements typical of the Hunedoara Castle can be remarked. The central hallway of the building is carved into marble from Moneasa.
The decoration of the main hallway was done in Secession style. The Art Nouveau windows have been preserved until today. The painting on the concave of the dome represents the solar system and the Halley Comet.
Interesting facts
Twenty-seven projects participated in the competition for the architectural project of the Cultural Palace. The competition raised such interest that, among participants, there were architects from Paris, Berlin and Budapest. None of the projects presented met the requests of local authorities.
Throughout the time, the concert hall of the Palace of Culture hosted performances of the grand tenor Traian Grozăvescu, of Richard Strauss and Béla Bartók. In 1931, on the occasion of his 50th anniversary, George Enescu received the title of honorary citizen of Arad, in the grand hall of the Palace.
https://www.aradcityguide.ro/

The Palace of Culture

Macea Castle, also called Cernovici Castle or Csernovics Castle, is a castle located in Macea Commune, Arad County, Romania. It was built in the 19th century and belonged to two noble families, the Csernovics and Károlyi.
History
The history of the castle is connected with the history of the noble family of Csernovics. They receive the nobility title from the Kingdom of Hungary in the year 1720. In the year 1724 Mihail and his son John (Ioan) get several estates including the Macea estate. In the same year begins the construction of a mansion in Macea, finished in the year 1745, which is the year of the death of Mihail. In that period the castle had only one wing, the east one with the two turrets. The wife of Mihail, Anne, becomes the next owner and she will buy the Curtici and Cutos estates. The nephew of Mihail, Lazarus Csernovics, is granted with the title of Graf (or Grof in the Romanian language) in the year 1793 by the Austrian Crown. In the year 1804 Paul Csernovics will become the owner of the Macea estate. He will take care of the appearance of the mansion. His son, Peter, is the one who will embellish the surroundings of the building. After a journey he made in 1845 in the Near East, Peter will bring diverse species of plants and trees which are then planted in the garden of the castle. He will be as well the last owner of the estate losing the castle and the domain at a card game.
From this moment the estate and the castle will belong to the Hungarian family of Nagy Károlyi. The first Graf of Macea was Gyula Károlyi. He starts in 1862 another stage in the improvement of the castle and the expansion of it by building another wing and a 30 meter high tower. With this changes the castle became similar to the French models in vogue at that time. His son, Tibor Károlyi, will take care of the park by expanding it on a surface of 100 holde of planted forest. In the year 1900, the owner was Gyula Károlyi, the one who will bring the photographer Ruhm Odon to take pictures of the castle. One image still exists. Gyula will be the one who adds a metallic terrace to the older wing of the building.
After 1912 the castle is neglected, the Graf being absorbed by the estate. From 1920 Gyula Karolyi retires at his residence in Budapest. In 1939 the castle and the park are passed to Adam Iancu, a doctor from Curtici, the owner until the 1948 expropriation. Subsequently, the castle will be used as an orphanage, asylum for blind persons, rehabilitation center for orphan children etc. After the Revolution, from the year 1991 the castle and the park were rent to the Vasile Goldiş West University of Arad, which bought them recently.