Romania is home to many beautiful castles, some of which lesser known to the wider public.  One of them is the Teleki Castle in Dumbravioara, Mures county. Not only can the castle be visited, but it is also on sale by an auction house.
The castle used to belong to one of Transylvania’s richest noble families, in the XVIII and XIX centuries. Count Samuel Teleki, Chancellor of Transylvania and founder of the Teleki Library in Targu-Mures, started the castle’s construction in 1769. He started building his house after he returned from his Western European travel in the late-1760s.
The construction started with the north wing in 1769 and continued with the south wing in 1773. In this period, the aristocratic family lived in the north wing, the south rooms being reserved for household and personal purposes. Teleki lived here with his family in the following years, according to data published on Dumbravioara.ro.
Other units were built later. For example, a complex of buildings was built behind the north wing between 1781 and 1782, and a manege (enclosed area for horses) was built in 1825.
A garden was planted behind the castle during the time of Samuel Teleki. This garden was later transformed into an English park.
The Neo-baroque central wing, which connects the two buildings from the eighteenth century, was built much later, between 1912 and 1913. Samuel Teleki, the chancellor’s great-grandson and a famous explorer of the African continent, ordered the wing’s construction.
The Teleki Castle in Dumbravioara consists of several buildings and still preserves some of the decorative elements of the old days.
After the nationalization, the building was converted into a school that is still operational today.
The heirs got back the castle after a lengthy process and are now trying to sell it. The leading Romanian art auction house Artmark announced in early-2015 that it will auction some of Romania’s most famous historical buildings, including the Teleki Castle.
Dumbravioara is located 14 km from Targu Mures, and 18 km from Reghin. The distance between Bucharest and Dumbravioara is of some 370 km.
https://www.romania-insider.com/

Teleki Castle in Dumbravioara

Account

by category

Login

Name

by region

Title

Name in English

The Estate.
 The village of Gernyeszeg (Gornesti) is situated in the valley of the River Maros between Marosvásárhely (Targu-Mures) and Régen (Reghin). The history of the village dates back 700 years and is closely connected to the life of its Landlords.
 The name of the village listed as ‘Knezeg’ appears in 1319 in documents for the first time as a donation made by the Hungarian King Károly Robert to his subject Szécsényi Simon. Later Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437) gave the property in 1405 to Somkereki Antal who saved his life in the lost battle at Nikapoli in 1396.One of his sons Antal built a fortress in the village first mentioned in 1477.The fortress, mostly built of stone, had three towers and two smaller bastions. It was surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge over it. Its size was mostly similar to that of the baroque castle of today. The family died in 1642 with the widow living there until 1670. The next owner was Bánffy Dénes , but after only 4 years he lost the property in favour of Teleki Mihály.
 The Teleki Family.
 Teleki Mihály (1634-1690) received Gernyeszeg and other villages as a donation. The family originates from the ancient Garázda family. It got its Coat of Arms of an ibex jumping out of a fire from Sigismund King of Hungary in 1409. Teleki Mihály was the greatest politician of his time in Transylvania and was the closest advisor of Apaffy Mihály, the Regent of the country.
 He grounded the wealth and power of the family. He died in the battle of Zernest in 1690. After his death his five sons each received the title of count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1697. The descendants of two of the five sons were the genealogical link of the two current existing branches of the family.
His son Sándor (1679-1754), inherited the fortress and the property. He generously supported the protestant church and several protestant schools. One of Sándor’s sons, Sámuel, became the chancellor of Transylvania and built the famous Teleki Library in Marosvásárhely.
Sándor’s son, László (1710-1778), inherited the fortress at Gernyeszeg. He was a passionate collector of books. He decided to build a castle in place of the old fortress and began to have the old building demolished in 1772. The building of the new castle stood until 1802. László’s son József (1738-1796), has the same love for books as his father. Between 1759-61, he travelled abroad and met Voltaire and J.J. Rousseau among others. His library was donated by his heirs to the Hungarian Academy of Science.
József’s son József (1777-1817), inherited the estate and changed the French park into an English one. His wife, Teleki Zsófia, had a memorial errected in the park for him which can still be seen today. His son Domokos (1810-1876), was a well known politician supporting the ideas of the 1848 revolution and who later wrote books about the history of the country. One of his grandsons, Bethlen István, Primeminister of Hungary between 1921-1931, was born at Gernyeszeg in 1874. Domokos (1890-1955), his other grandson was interested in antiquity and made a museum in the castle containing many valuable objects. The most important was his collection of old Turkish carpets.
The last owner of the castle was Count Teleki Mihály(1908-1988) and his wife Countess Tisza Aimée (1914-1991). During and after World War II, the castle was devastated and in 1949 it was nationalised.It was then transformed into a nursing home for children until 2011, from which time it again has been repossesed by the exisiting Teleki family.
The Castle and the Park.
You reach the castle over the former drawbridge across the ditch. The building in baroque style resembles to some extent other castles around Budapest like at Gödöllö, Pecel and Nagytétény.
It is the so called Grassalkowich style, its main features being the „U” form, a large dome in the middle and a festivity hall beaneth.
The walls and the ceiling of the festivity hall have been painted since the beginning of the XIX. century. Above the entrance door and the door leading to the loggia one can see the painted weapons of the family. But the three chandeliers of Murano glass are the most impressive remains of the former wealth.
The park got its actual form at the begining of the XIX century.Valuable and rare trees were planted, like the gingo-biloba(right from the main entrance), lime, willow , oak-trees and cypresses.
Part of the fomer ditch became a lake with a small island in the middle.Once there were swans there too. The Margit spring cherishes the memory of Countess Géza Teleki born Countess Margit Bethlen.
There are grotesque sculptures around the lake representing some famous figures of the French revolution, like Mirabeau, Les dames des halles (market women) and Louis XVI.
There are some other sculptures in the park representig ancient gods and godesses: Ganymedes on the left, in front of the bridge, Bachus and Ceres to the left and right of the main entrance, Neptun , Pan , Venus in the park behind the castle. They were brought to Gernyeszeg in the early 20th from Budapest by Count Domokos Teleki.
http://telekicastle.com/

Teleki Castle in Gernyeszeg

The middle-age fortress that can be seen today as well was built in XVII. was built in place of the fortified castle built in 1496 by Báthori István what was destroyed in the tartar-Turkish campaign of 1601. One year later in 1602 started the reconstruction works of the fortress. There were built seven bastions five of them by the town's guilds. The common bastion of the shoemakers, furriers and locksmiths and the coopers, butchers, tailors, the Bathory and the Gate bastion is connected by a 10 m height wall. The 10 m wide and 8 m deep rampart served protective object that was stuffed at the beginning of the XXth century. Inside the wall sometimes there were buildings as well what were ruined in 1962 as they wanted to realize a leisure time center in place of it. They kept only the reformed church.
https://www.welcometoromania.eu/

Middle-age Fortress Targu Mures

Administration Palace was the first modern building of the XX century situated in the centre of the city. The building was built between 1905-1907 on the initiative of the mayor György Bernády.
The building has a 55 m high tower. The external decorations are covered with colored majolica tiles in shades of green and mustard yellow, which gives palace a particular appearance.
For 55 years the building was the headquarters of City Hall. Also, the building has a significant architectural value, as it is under the umbrella of secession style.
From 1962 until present building has been the administrative headquarters of the County Council and the Prefecture Mures.
https://continental-forum-tirgu-mures.continentalhotels.ro/

Administration Palace in Târgu Mureș

13 km from Reghin, in the center of Gurghiu, right at the foot of the Citadel Hill stands the Rákóczi-Bornemisza Castle architectural ensemble.
The beginnings of the castle date back to Prince I. Gheorghe Rákóczi I (1593-1648), who wanted to establish a more accessible residence for the hunting parties organized in the Gurghiu Mountains, in which he often participated.
In 1717, the castle was leased out to Vice-Chancellor Ioan Bornemisza and his descendants for 99 years. The Bornemisza family made a lot of investments, erecting new buildings around the castle: in 1740 the chapel with an elliptical design (rarely found in Transylvania) was built. Between 1754 and 1756, the paper mill was rebuilt and was operational until 1872; a glass factory and a porcelain work-shop were also established.
The events of the 1848 Revolution did not spare the Gurghiu domain. The castle was besieged by the serfs, many goods being destroyed. The family restored the buildings, constrained by the fact that the domain had to be returned. Upon expiration of the lease, the Bornemisza family refused to return the property, demanding payment of all the investments made, and consequently the Austrian state brought them to justice. The lawsuits lasted for 27 years and in 1869 the two parties came to an agreement, the Bornemisza family binding themselves to return the property by the end of 1870.
Since 1880, the domain has been used directly by the state, the castle and its annexes undergoing a renovation process to transform the whole place into a hunting castle for the successor prince Rudolf of Habsburg. After the Mayerling drama, when the heir prince is alleged to have committed suicide in the hunting lodge, the destination of the castle changed, so it became a foresters’ school in 1893.
The dendrological park of the Rákóczi-Bornemisza Castle is among the last arranged “English Parks” and is characteristic of the Mureş nobility residences of the 18th-19th centuries. Set in 1740 on the initiative of Leopold Bornemisza, it includes over 100 species of native and exotic trees (originating from Australia, Japan, South America and North America). The park offers the visitors the opportunity to relax in a natural setting, and botanic enthusiasts the opportunity to improve their knowledge.
https://reghincity.ro/

Rákóczi-Bornemisza Castle

Urmeniș is a village located in Mureș county, on the road that links Cluj Napoca to Reghin. The estate, which existed already at the beginning of the 14th century, became the property of I. Rákóczi György in 1638, who decided to build a new modern mansion. The new building was built between the period of 1639-1641, in the place of a single-storey mansion, which had a porch. The building's designer and work supervisor was Fundáló Mátyás of Alba Iulia. Besides the well-known architect, other known personalities are the master masons Kőműves Simon and Kőműves János, originally from Bistrița.
According to contemporary sources, the building was made of brick on stone foundation and the acces to the upper floor was made by a stone staircase with columns. The ground floor had arched rooms and the rooms on the upper floor had flat ceilings. The windows situated on the ground-floor had iron bars. The building was covered with dovetail shaped roof . The construction works were mostly completed in 1641, later sources mention only improvements or works made on side buildings. At the end of the 1640's a new house was built near the castle, according to the design of Kőműves András. This was completed in 1648. During the reign of II. Rákóczi György, the castle had changed its owner, first being owned by the Barcsai family and finally, after complicated litigations, the estate became the property of  the (losonczi) Bánffy family. During the period of 1667-1668 Bánffy Dénes has modernized and renovated the castle. The building with a rectanglar ground plan is located in the center of the village, near the Reformed Church. It is covered by a jerkin-head roof and its north facade is facing the street. The south facade with 11 axis, facing the courtyard, is determined by an arcade with 9 axis, delimited by jack arched windows. Above the arcade there is a vaulted hallway which leads to the stone, barrel-vaulted staircase or to the rooms that can be reached from there. The ground-floor contains nine cross- and barrel-vaulted rooms and the upper floor eight floor with flat ceilings. The interior of the building is quite simple, currently vacant, in a neglected state, the original equipment and decor has not been preserved. There is a cellar beneath the building which is covered by barrel vault. The castle's facades have similar decorations, having plinths covered with artificial stone cladding, string-courses made out of plaster, separating the ground floor from the upper floor, and the multi-profiled cornice that runs around the whole building. The corners are decorated with quoining.
Vertically, the facades are determined by baroque jack-arched windows with simple plaster decorations or ones imitating stone frames. Other decoration elements seen are the lesene. These divide the eastern facade, facing the road, into 15 segments and the two smaller walls into 4 segments. The entrance into the cellar is located northern axis of the eastern wall. From the carved elements, the window sills from the upper floor are to be mentioned as well as the walled-up Renaissance stone frame, placed secondly on the upper floor, on the right side of the staircase. The brick building's foundation, the stone stairs of the main entrance located on the central axis of the southern side and the base of the pillars are made out also of stone. West to the castle there is the rectangular-shaped, single-story granary with basement and hipped roof. Its entrance is facing the western side of the castle. On each side of the entrance there are three narrow windows. On the southern part there is an entrance which leads to the cellar and a big, walled up, jack-arched window. The central axis of the granary's western side contains trances of  walled-up fenestration. A newly constructed extension can be seen on the northern facade of the granary, facade which is facing the street. The reinforcement bars used for the walls are suspected to be as old as the building itself and the masonry running around the building serve as element that strengthen the walls.
https://kastelyerdelyben.ro/