Photo credit: (c) Marius POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Considered Transylvania’s Versailles, the Banffy Castle turned from a venue hosting glamorous balls and dinner parties, attended by high-ranking figures of those times from the Imperial Court in Vienna, into the perfect place for holding music concerts attracting the interest of more people than ever.

The event with the largest influx of participants was Electric Castle, on its second edition this year at end-June, which brought together nearly 80,000 people, a record for the relevant concerts in Romania.

“For the second time electronic music was played at the Banffy Castle, on occasion of the Electric Castle Festival 2014, breaking all records ever registered in Romania in similar events. Over 79,000 participants from Romania and abroad made the castle vibrate for four days (…) and 50,000 unique visitors accessed the website of the festival,” the organizers informed in a release after this year’s edition.

Performing this year were Die Antwoords, Thievery Corporation, Bonobo, Suie Paparude.

“All the over 130 artists gave birth to a unique experience the audience felt the need to share via social networks. The festival’s Facebook account reached 41,000 fans, and the Instagram network #electriccastle gathered 50,000 photos. The mobile application especially designed to help the audience follow the schedule and all novelties was downloaded by 7,500 people. The website www.electriccastle.ro recorded a peak of 50,000 unique visitors. (…) Electric Castle Festival 2014 became a reality thanks to the effort of the entire team that numbered about 800 people. They were joined by 200 national and foreign volunteers,” the release reads.

The Festival took place over June 19-22; the camping area arranged for the participants was filled to the brim by over 11,000 national and foreign youth. As for the garbage left behind by participants, the organizers collected over 12,500 plastic cups under a recycling program.

The first edition held last year brought together a record number of participants for a debut, about 32,000 people. Among the performers were Morcheeba, Telepopmusik, Stanton Warriors, Feed Me and Dope D.O.D.

Historian Lucian Nastasa Kovacs told AGERPRES that the gatherings held nowadays are much different compared to those once hosted by the castle. According to Kovacs, cultural meetings, official dinner parties and formal dress code parties, attended by high-ranking figures, were nothing out of the ordinary for the Banffy family.

“The owner was a family who lived in the 17th-18th century, with princely roots, the castle itself was considered the Versailles of Transylvania. There’s no doubt that receptions were organized, as revealed by memoires, other documents. Banffy Miklos has done a lot as far as culture is concerned, he is in fact the founder of Erdely Helikon newspaper, the castle was used as a venue for these meetings with writers, his friends at that time, from architect Kos Karoly and baron Kemeny Lajos to other founders and journalists writing for the Erdely Helikon. When the Nazis burned his library at Bontida in 1944, it numbered over 25,000 volumes, meaning at least two rooms packed with books. The library served as home to these meetings,’ the historian relates.

He also revealed that besides these cultural and literary meetings, high society guests were invited to attend balls, on various occasions.

“On the other hand, as any other family with princely roots, they also held balls. In those times, these events were very well organized, with all guests belonging to the high society. Various shows took place to mark certain moments of the year. We must not forget that the Banffy family was committed to the reformed faith, therefore there were very few restriction periods, only two per year in religious terms. For instance, during the winter holidays, Christmas was celebrated in big style. Or other occasions such as the birthday of a Banffy family member, for instance the father of Nicolae Banffy. All these events required receptions,” explains Kovacs.

Photo credit: (c) Marius POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

But glamorous formal parties were also held in honour of great figures of those times, especially the representatives of the Imperial Court in Vienna.

“Receptions were also held in honour of princely convoys, namely of Vienna envoys for example, who came to inspect, they were governors. If I’m not mistaken, a crown prince went to Gherla in the 19th century, and he stopped over at Bontida. When we received the visit of such people, a reception was automatically organized and attended by all aristocrats in the region,” the historian argues.

In his opinion, in the meantime, the meetings at the Banffy Castle have achieved a democratic nature, as anyone has access to the building.

“Nowadays, the music played at Bontida is too modern, everything is electronic, but music means more than synthesizers,” he reckons.

The last princely owner of the castle was Miklos Banffy, a culture figure and former foreign minister of Hungary. Miklos Banffy (1873-1950) was count of Losoncz, politician, writer, lawyer, graphic designer, screenwriter, a complex personality, who has advocated for the good relations between Romanians and Hungarians. He has served as Cluj prefect between 1906 and 1910, Liberal deputy, and between April 14, 1921 and Dec. 19, 1922 he has held the position of Hungary’s foreign affairs minister. He also worked as chief editor for two Cluj-based publications, Erdely Lapok and Erdely Helikon; between 1934 and 1940 he wrote his most famous work named the Transylvanian Trilogy, translated into several languages, a first part in Romanian included.

In 1943, being commissioned by Hungarian Prime Minister Istvan Bethlen, he attended secret talks with Iulia Maniu in Bucharest, with a view to forging a Romanian-Hungarian agreement. Miklos Banffy’s demarche to bring Romanian and Hungarian forces closer cost him dearly, because on Oct. 13, 1944, the SS Nazi troops burned the Bontida castle, with the flames destroying works of art and the library full of 26,000 volumes.

Historian Lucian Nastasa Kovacs also says that the relation between the Romanians and Hungarians meant everything to Miklos Banffy.

After ending his term as Hungarian foreign minister, Miklos Banffy moved to Transylvania in 1926; the condition for being given Romanian citizenship was not to engage in political activity for ten years. According to historic documents, right after the far-right parties seized power in October 1944, Banffy sent a letter to Governor Miklos Horthy, announcing his resignation as parliamentarian.

On the other hand, Miklos Banffy was in very good terms with Miklos Horthy, and it is said that thanks to this relationship, Cluj escaped the fighting in the autumn of 1944.

“Banffy Miklos took advantage of his relationship with Miklos Horthy, They were on friendly terms and Banffy’s friends asked him to get in contact with Horthy for Cluj to be declared a free city, precisely not to be bombed. No defence strategy was put in place for the city of Cluj. We found out that a couple of bombs fell in the area nearby the train station; but the bombs were launched before September by the British and US aviation. Because of the fact that Banffy curried favour with Miklos Horthy, the city was declared a free area and escaped bomb attacks. Then, in retaliation, when they had to withdraw, because the Banffy Palace was used for a while as military hospital by the retreating German troops, they dynamited a good part of the palace and they burned his entire library. In addition, they stole a lot of things. Banffy found some stolen paintings in a used bookstore in Budapest,” Kovacs relates.

In 1945, left without a bit of fortune, Miklos Banffy returned for the second time to Transylvania and took part actively in the cultural events in Cluj; in 1947 he asked to be repatriated to Hungary, being given green light two years later. Tholdalagi Korda, the palace of his family, located in Cluj-Napoca, was turned on the state’s hands; he decides to retire in one of the castle’s rooms. He died on June 5, 1950 in Budapest, after spending the last year of his life in poor health. In 1976, the remains of Miklos Banffy were brought to Transylvania, being placed, according to his last wish, in the family vault in the Cluj-based Hajongard cemetery.

The Banffy Castle is built in Baroque style, being the largest castle in Transylvania. Mentioned for the first time in documents in the 14th century, the domain was purchased by the Banffy family in 1387. Throughout all these years, the castle has undergone several changes and over the past decades, a part of the building was destroyed. The castle served as the headquarters of a C.A.P. unit (agricultural production cooperative during the Communist regime), driving school, as well as setting for the movie “Forest of the Hanged”.

Photo credit: (c) Endina ROATIS / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Photo credit: (c) Marius POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Photo credit: (c) Endina ROATIS / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The palace is undergoing a complex restoration process, under the aegis of Prince Charles, heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.AGERPRES