The castle of “Electric Castle” – the Transylvanian Versailles

In reality, this is a title bestowed upon the Banffy Castle centuries ago, when its beauty was indeed grand. Today, however, due to neglect and devastation during the communist regime, very little remains of its former glory. Easily reachable from Cluj-Napoca – only 30 kilometers away - , in the village of Bonchida (Bonțida in Romanian), the building is monument of immeasurable historical and architectural significance.

The domain afferent to the present day Banffy Castle came into the possession of the Banffy family in the year 1387, when it was accorded to them by the king of Hungary, Sigismund of Luxembourg. (Transylvania had been under Hungarian occupation for over 400 years at that time). The Banffy family was part of the Hungarian nobility that ruled Transylvania. The nobility was afforded special benefits which sometimes came in the form of properties.

The castle was built starting with 1437 when discontented Romanian and Hungarian peasants rebelled against the Hungarian administration that imposed upon them restrictions beyond the limit of endurance while giving excessive privileges to the nobles. For fear of the upheavals surrounding his estate, the Baron Banffy asked King Albert – who was King of Hungary between 1438 and 1439 when he died - for permission to build a citadel. Constructions ended in 1543.

With a history spanning over 500 centuries, the castle displays an amalgam of different architectural fashions, particular to the many epochs the building endured. When it was first built, it displayed the Renaissance and Baroque styles. Then, Dennis Banffy (1638-1674) expanded the initial nucleus to the size it is today with the help of Italian architect, Agostino Serena. Together, they fortified the citadel by the addition of four strongholds in its corners, a tower positioned at the entrance and a garden.

Dennis Banffy the 2nd commissioned the Vienesse architect Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach to rebuild the castle in 1745 in the Austrian Baroque style. And a following descendant, József Bánffy, adds yet another feature to the castle, by reshaping the garden in a Romantic design.

The last owner of the castle was Count Miklos Banffy, who activated as a politician and a literary man. In 1944, the German troops evacuated the count from his property together with his family, and would use it for military purposes – it was transformed into a military hospital. The following year, the agrarian reform dispossessed him of all of his lands and homes, including the castle.

The communist regime marked the castle’s fall from former magnificence. In 1944, both Romania and Hungary were at war and Count Miklos Banffy went to Bucharest to negotiate their retreat. He urged that Cluj-Napoca should be surrendered to the Germans without a fight so that it may be saved from the horrors of war. This was accomplished, but as retribution, an SS detachment ransacked the count’s castle: they set it on fire, destroyed the furniture, the library and the painting collection. Thus, the treasures amassed over a history of hundreds of years were completely lost.

In 1950, the Bonchida Cooperative was opened in one of the remaining functional wings. Afterwards it would house a driving school, and later on, a children’s hospital. In 1963, it sustained irreparable damages when, as the set for the movie "The Forest of Hanged”, one of its buildings was set ignorantly set ablaze because of the need for a fire in one of the scenes.

In 1990, the castle was declared a historical monument and since 1999 it has been under restoration and rehabilitation. But 16 years into the process, the improvements are much below expectations. It is also surprising how a building that until the year 1944, despite its old age, was fully-functional can be declared a historical monument, only some 45 years later.

Presently, Banffy Castle is the location of the biggest festival in Romania, „Electric Castle”. Since its first edition, in 2013, it has quickly shot to fame, drawing some of most significant electronic music bands.

Granted, the idea has made the castle known to the public, much of which – even from Cluj-Napoca – was not even aware of its existence, but it is debatable whether it also familiarizes the attendants with the historical value of the place.