The former estates of the earls, from luxury to disaster. Two neighboring castles, on the verge of ruin, the third saved from collapse

Three castles built in the 19th century, five kilometers from each other, have reached the verge of ruin in recent years. One could be saved by local authorities. The other two continued to degrade. The mansions of the counts in Șara Hațegului keep disturbing histories.

Nalati Castle. Photo: Daniel Guță. TRUTH

Șara Haţegului, so called since the Middle Ages, stretches in a region of plateau and plain at the foot of the Retezat, in the places of the Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa colony, the first ancient city established by the Romans in Dacia.

All its settlements have preserved valuable ancient and medieval vestiges (villa rustica, stone churches, fortresses and forts), and from the 18th and 19th centuries, several noble castles spectacular in their architecture and appearance were built around them.

The most impressive of them are located in the vicinity of the town of Hațeg, at a distance of 4–5 kilometers from each other, and belonged to the Kendeffy, Nopcsa and Fay families.

Nopcsa Castle from Săcel, Nalați-Fay Castle from Hațeg and Kendeffy Castle from Sântămaria Orlea “shined” in the 19th century in the middle of a land of patriarchal settlements adorned with medieval stone churches.

In the middle of the 20th century, they were nationalized by the communist regime, and after 1990, they were gradually abandoned. In recent years, the three two-century-old castles have been abandoned, and the lack of maintenance and guarding hastened their deterioration.

Nalați Castle is almost ruined, Kendeffy Castle is visibly degraded, and Nopcsa Castle was saved from ruin by an investment of the Hunedoara County Council, completed in 2024.

Nalati Castle, left without roofs

Nalati Castle is in the worst condition since its construction two centuries ago. In recent years, its roofs have mostly collapsed, along with the ceilings and parts of the walls. Locals describe it as a “ghost building” that still evokes memories.

“The castle was a gem. I stayed here as a child, over five decades ago, when it functioned as a TB ward. And the surroundings were just as pleasant.” recalls a local woman.

Nalati Castle was nationalized in 1948 by the communist regime and turned into a school camp, an agricultural resort, a TB prevention center for children and a neuropsychiatry ward of the Hațeg hospital. Its lands were used in agriculture, and some were included in the Orlea Lake hydropower development on the Râul Mare (Hațeg).

After 1990, the two-story building, its annexes and the dendrological park, spread over 7.5 hectares, were disputed in court between the supposed heirs of the Fay family, the last private owners of the estate, and the Romanian state. During the nearly two decades of trials, the castle remained “nobody's”, and time and people contributed to its destruction. Deteriorations have been increasing for several years, after the roof began to collapse, along with the ceilings of the upper floor.

From 2022, at the end of the process, the historical monument re-entered the heritage of the Romanian state and is in the private domain of the city of Hațeg.

“We want to restore it with European funds, together with its dendrological park, if we get funding”, says the mayor Adrian Pușcaș.

Black Face's Castle

The Fay Castle in Nalați was built in the middle of the 19th century and belonged to several noble families. One of its past owners was Count Vasile (László) Nopcsa (1794–1884), Supreme Comite of Hunedoara, one of the few aristocrats who joined the Blaj Assembly of 1848, in which the Romanians demanded their rights and freedoms as a distinct nation in Transylvania.

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Nalati Castle Photo Daniel Guță THE TRUTH (7) JPG

His gesture since then has brought him trouble. He was forced to resign as a committeeman, and part of his wealth was confiscated. Also then, the castle he had built in the Hunedorian town of Zam, on the banks of the Mureș River, was set on fire by the Hungarian troops and then devastated by the locals.

A few years later, Nopcsa became the hero of local folklore and a famous novel of the time, “The Poor Rich”, published in 1860 by the writer Jókai Mór.

Vasile Nopcsa, Franz Nopcsa and Francisc Nopcsa. Wikipedia

The story portrayed the bandit “Black Face”, an extremely rich count with features similar to Nopcsa, who secretly led a gang of robbers and coin forgers, operating in the foothills of the Apuseni, in the land of Zarand. The former commitee went to trial with the one who created his legend, accusing him of slander, but he died before the verdict of the trial.

Kendeffy Castle on the brink of ruin

Developed in the 90s, Lake Orlea separates the former estates of Counts Kendeffy and Nopcsa. At Sântamaria Orlea, on the opposite bank, the former Kendeffy castle is currently in a better situation than Nalați, but it has been closed since the 2000s, and the passage of time has left its mark on it.

Part of the roof has collapsed, blown away by the wind, allowing rainwater to enter the building, and the walls covered in moisture and mold and rusted sheet metal on the towers show the lack of investment in the restoration of the historic monument.

Built in the 18th century, Kendeffy Castle was one of the “jewels” of Hațegului Country and the place where the most famous members of the Kendeffy family lived, the Hungarianized descendants of the Cândea clans from Transylvania.

The castle was devastated by the peasants during the Horea Uprising of 1784, was rebuilt by Count Elek Kendeffy at the end of the 18th century, was beautified in the 19th century by his descendants, Count Ádám Kendeffy and Count Árpád Kendeffy, and was cared for in the 20th century, until the establishment of the communist regime, by the last noble of the Kendeffy family, Count Gábor Kendeffy.

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Kendeffy Castle from Sântamaria Orlea Photo Daniel Guță THE TRUTH (4) JPG

Kendeffy Castle was spared destruction in the First World War, but was devastated by the locals during the Second World War and in the following decades. In the 80s, it was renovated and used as a school camp and motel-restaurant. It was claimed in the 2000s by an alleged Kendeffy heir, Paul von Daranyi, and in recent years has been closed to the public and left for conservation.

In its vicinity, the church of Sântamaria Orlea, built in the 13th century, in the Byzantine style, is among the oldest medieval churches in Romania, materials from the ruins of ancient buildings were used in its construction.

Nopcsa Castle, restored by the Romanian state

4-5 kilometers from the two ruined castles, another former noble residence in Șara Hațegului has recently regained its luster, after it had also reached the brink of ruin in the 2000s.

The Nopcsa Castle in Săcel was built in the 19th century and was inhabited by the Nopcsa noble family, with Romanian origins (known as Nopcea). It would have been related to that of the Huniazis, according to the coat of arms that preserves, in both families, the Raven with a ring in its beak, but in the past centuries it was Hungarianized, like many other wealthy families in the area.

In the 19th century, the Nopcsa family had become one of the most influential in Transylvania, maintaining close ties with the imperial family in Vienna. In Transylvania, the Nopcsa nobles owned numerous estates and castles in the Hațeg lands at the foot of the Retezat and in the Mureș valley, in Hunedoara and Arad.

Franz Nopcsa (1877–1933), the last owner of the castle, had a brilliant career as a scientist, being the one who discovered the fossils of dwarf dinosaurs in Ţara Hațegului. During the First World War, however, he ended up on the list of enemies of the Romanian state because of his activity in the Austro-Hungarian and German espionage services, deployed on Romanian territory and in the Balkans.

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Franz Nopcsa Source Public Domain jpg

After the war, he was rehabilitated by King Ferdinand, his merits in science being recognized by the Romanians. Instead, he was no longer forgiven by the villagers of Săcel, the town at the foot of the Retezat where he had his castle. There he was severely beaten and banished forever from his estate in Șara Hategului. Franz Nopcsa died in a hotel in Vienna after killing his friend.

His castle in Săcel came under the care of the Romanian state. After World War II, it was converted into a school camp and then a school for children with special needs. After 1990, it remained closed, and the locals ravaged it, some convinced that it was hiding treasures.

It fell into ruin at the end of the 2000s, but since 2019 it has been restored. The works, worth over 11.5 million lei, were financed from government funds and from the budget of the Hunedoara County Council, and the castle in Țara Hațegului entered the administration of the Museum of Dacian and Roman Civilization in Deva and can be visited again, as a museum.