Sunday 2 August 2015

Transylvanian Castles - 2. part

Gorneşti - Gernyeszeg
The Teleki Castle

Yesterday we visited a lovely village, Gornesti, situated in the valley of the river Mures. 
Some of my friends came home for vacation and we made a little, one day long trip. It was so nice to hang out with the girls, we had a great day :)



The history of Gornesti (Gernyeszeg-Hungarian) dates back 700 years and on this property, before the castle was a fortress. This was mostly built of stone and had three towers and two bastions and it was surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge over it.
The first Teleki received the village with the fortress as a donation. In the 16th century Mihaly Teleki was the greatest politician in Transylvania. At the end of the 17th century the old building was demolished and Laszlo Teleki decided to build a castle in place of the fortress. The new castle was finished in 1802. 
The last owner was Count Mihaly Teleki. During and after World War II the castle was devastated and in 1949 it was nationalized. The count and his family expelled from their home and forced to live in a basement. Between 1949 and 2011 the castle was transformed into a nursing home for ill children. 
The castle was repossessed to the existing Teleki family only in 2011. 




 We made some funny pictures inside the castle :)
Unfortunately the real and old furniture, art collections and personal assets were all stolen during the war and communist era... The furniture you can see is just some replications and are used primarily for wedding pictures. 
The castle needs a thorough restoration, but it would cost a lot of money. Now-days the successors maintain the building from donations and events. 

  

The actual form of the park dates form the beginning of the 19th century. There were planted valuable and rare trees, like gingko-biloba, lime, willow, oak trees and cypresses. Part of the former ditch was transformed to a lake with a small island in the middle. Once there were wild ducks and swans too. There are grotesque sculptures around the lake.
There are some other sculptures in the park representing ancient gods and goddesses which were brought to the castle in the early 20th century from Budapest, Hungary.  






2 comments:

  1. Beautiful castle!!! Foarte frumos!!! Nagyon szep!!!
    Virag (from Transylvania)
    :)

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  2. Thank you, multumesc, koszonom szepen, orulok hogy tetszik Virag! A Teleki Kastely valoban gyonyoru! :)

    ReplyDelete