The great builders
Transylvanian noble, member of the princely council, brother-in-law to Transylvanian Prince Michael I Apafi, military commander of Cluj and Șimleu.
He was the first member of his family in whose case the written records show building activity at Bonțida. He acquired many properties for his family, including the castle in Gilău. A resolute and highly influential politician, he often came into conflict with the leading circle of the princely court, particularly with councillor Mihály Teleki.
He became the victim of a political conspiracy: his opponents accused him of high treason, and the Diet convened at Alba Iulia in 1674 sentenced him to death in a trial of clearly fabricated character. He was beheaded in June of the same year, an event that caused great shock in Transylvanian public life, many regarding it as a ruthless settling of scores among rival nobles. His wife, Kata Bornemisza (?–1685), was imprisoned with him in the castle of Beclean and, after her husband’s death, moved to Bonțida, where the castle with four corner towers and curtain walls surrounding the inner courtyard was already standing.
The tragic fate of Dénes Bánffy later inspired Hungarian literature as well: his figure appears as a significant character in one of the novels of the celebrated author, Mór Jókai.
Baron and later count, pro-Habsburg noble, the first governor of Transylvania as part of the Habsburg Empire.
He preserved the prestige of the Bánffy family even after the tragic fate of his father,
and with the support of the Viennese court soon became one of the most influential figures
of the newly established Transylvanian administration. In 1696 Emperor Leopold I elevated
him to the rank of count. His wife was Klára Bethlen.
At Bonțida, he continued the construction works begun by his father, but these came to be
interrupted by the outbreak of the War of Independence led by Francis II Rákóczi (1703–1711).
The governor fled from the Kuruc troops to the town of Sibiu, where he later died.
At the end of 1709 he was buried in the Reformed Church on Kogălniceanu (Farkas) Street,
in Cluj, where his memorial plaque can still be seen today.
Count, Lord-lieutenant of Cluj County, Master of the Horse to Empress Maria Theresa, chamberlain and privy councillor of the Holy Roman Empire.
He married baroness Ágnes Barcsay in 1746, thus the income of his large estates was further increased by the huge dowry of his wife. When he wasn’t staying in Gilău, he spent his days in Vienna, at the court of Empress Maria Theresa. The couple had four children in ten years, of which two sons survived: Dénes Bánffy (who died in 1773) and György Bánffy, later governor of Transylvania, as well as a daughter, Ágnes (born around 1756). In the tenth year of their marriage, the prodigal count converted to the Catholic religion. His political and religious ties inspired the Baroque reconstruction of the castle: the horseshoe-shaped court d’honneur and the carved stone statue gallery above its cornice, as well as the design of the French garden. The castle owes its name of Versailles of Transylvania to these new elements.
Imperial and royal chamberlain, Governor of Transylvania from 1787.
He studied at the Theresianum in Vienna. He was the last truly grand Transylvanian lord, one of the most passionate builders and art enthusiasts. He was a patron of the Transylvanian Philological Society founded by György Aranka in 1793, and in 1819 he also became the patron of the Music Association, the first institution for artistic education in Cluj and in the region. His wife, Palm Jozefa, was a highly educated music connoisseur, who enjoyed the music of Mozart.
He is known as the builder of the famous Bánffy Palace in Cluj, while at the same time carrying out repair works at Bonțida. In 1784, he commissioned the Baroque portal of the main building looking towards the inner courtyard, which is immortalised by a Latin inscription on the stone lintel of the balcony entrance. The inscription reads:
RESTAURARI CURAVIT COMES GEORGIUS BANFFI L: B: DE LOSONTZ /S: C: R: A: M: CAMERARIUS INSIGNIS ORD: S: STEPHANI REGIS APLICI COMENDATOR / HUNGARICO ET TRANNICO AULICUS CANCELARIUS ANNO 1784.
Translation: Renovated by Count György Bánffy, free baron of Losonc, chamberlain of His Most Sacred Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, commander of the renowned Order named after Saint Stephen, Apostolic King, and Court Chancellor of Hungary and Transylvania, in the year 1784.
The correspondence between György Bánffy and Jozefa Palm illustrates the great care and attention they paid to furnishing and decorating of the castle, which included white ceramic stoves, baroque chandeliers with glass pendants, and carved chess pieces, each of one metre in height, inscribed with the initials BGB. These once stood on the steps of the grand staircase that led to the upper storey. In their residences at Cluj, Gilău and Bonțida, records show a great number of musical clocks and other instruments, two double basses, a dulcimer, music stands and benches for the musicians, and last but not least, a fortepiano veneered with cherry wood.
Governmental councillor.
He lived alone on his Bonțida estate until his death, being an extremely reclusive man. As a passionate art enthusiast, he was constantly planning architectural transformations and immediately embraced all fashionable trends. He transformed the baroque French garden at Bonțida into an English park, surrounding the castle with winding paths, artificially arranged bushes and scattered flower beds. In the 1810s, he demolished the Renaissance gate tower, the elements of which were used to build a mill, and he redecorated some of the buildings’ façades in Classicist style. As a result of the spread of English Romanticism in Hungary, the western wings of the castle (part of the main building and the former kitchen building) reflect the Neo-Gothic style even today. Impoverished due to the abuses of his employees, the count was forced to sell his castle to the Duke of Coburg, who ceded it to Count Miklós Bánffy.
Hungarian polymath; writer, graphic artist, set and costume designer, stage director, politician, foreign minister. His parents were György Bánffy (1845–1929) and Irma Bánffy (1851–1875). His wife was actress Aranka Váradi.
Between 1900 and 1906 has was a Member of Parliament, in 1906–1909 editor of the journal Erdélyi Lapok, between 1906 and 1910 Lord-lieutenant of Cluj County, from 1912 intendant of the Hungarian Opera House and the National Theatre in Budapest. In 1916, he was asked to design the coronation site of the last Hungarian King, Charles IV. Between 1921 and 1922, he was the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He returned to Transylvania in 1926, and on 6 July of that same year he received Romanian citizenship from the Romanian King Ferdinand I, promising that he would not engage in politics for ten years. Instead of politics, he considered it his task to revive the Transylvanian literary life and to establish the Hungarian cultural institution system in Transylvania. The establishment of the journal Erdélyi Helikon, the organisation of the writers’ meetings at Brâncovenești, the modernisation of the Ellenzék periodical and the addition of a Sunday literary column, the boosting of the editorial work of the Erdélyi Szépmíves Céh are all cultural policy actions that attest to the effectiveness of his presence in Transylvania. In addition, he was the curator of the Transylvanian Reformed Church and was actively involved in the Transylvanian Farmers’ Association. His novel, the Transylvanian Trilogy, the volumes of which were published from 1934, is a masterpiece of world literature.
In the 1930s, he simplified the architecture, once with intricate tracery, of the upper storey of the loggia attached to the castle’s western wing, based on his own designs, as well as on those of his friend, architect Károly Kós.
In 1944, as a delegate of the Hungarian government, he tried to seek contact with the anti-fascist forces in Bucharest. As a result, the retreating German troops set fire to his castle in Bonțida. After that, he lived in Cluj until 1949, passing away in Budapest in 1950.
The last bearer of the name of the Bánffy family de Losonc’s count branch, owner of Bonțida Castle since 2007. She was born in Budapest, on 5 June 1924. Her husband was Ted Jelen, with whom she had three children: David passed away, Elisabeth lives in Paris, and Nicolette in the United States. She has three grandsons. She is the caretaker of her father’s literary legacy, as well as the initiator of the Transylvanian Trilogy’s English and French translations, being also the co-translator of the English version. The revival of Miklós Bánffy’s oeuvre is partly due to her efforts. In 2005 she published her memoirs with the title Ének az életből (Song of Life). She passed away in Tangier, on 14 February 2025, at the age of 100.
Bibliográfia:
A bonchidai Bánffy-kastély: múlt, jelen, jövő, 2020.
Bíró József, A bonchidai Bánffy-kastély, Minerva, Cluj, 1935. (ETF 75)
Bíró József, Erdélyi kastélyok, Új Idők Irodalmi Intézet, Bp., 1943.
https://mnl.gov.hu/mnl/ol/hirek/nezzen_leginkabb_a_szeretetre_egy_erdelyi_fouri_hazassag
http://www.gyalucastle.com/photosfamily.html
Gy. Dávid Gyula, A bonchidai Bánffy-kastély, Polis, Kolozsvár, 2018.