Nakó Castle, originally known as Nacu Castle, stands grandly on Banat's soil, bearing witness to a rich history and cultural changes. Its origins are linked to an Aromanian family from Greece, which settled in Banat.
The Nacu brothers, Hristu and Chiril, members of the most renowned noble family in the northwest of Timiș-Torontal county in the 18th and 19th centuries, converted to Catholicism and Magyarized, adopting the names Nakó, Kristóf, and Cziril.
By purchasing the estate at an auction in 1781, they laid the foundations of the castle, with construction beginning in 1864.
A History Full of Splendor and Transformation
The building, dominated by a medieval-style tower, contains 99 rooms. In its heyday, the castle housed a library with 5,000 volumes, paintings, statues, carved furniture, rare porcelain, and letters from personalities such as Ferenc Deák, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner.
However, the treasures of the Nakó counts' castle disappeared after the First World War when Banat temporarily came under Serbian, then French occupation.
After the war, the castle hosted Romania's first agricultural school; in 1941, it became a Legion headquarters and later an arsenal depot.
Cultural Renaissance
After the Second World War, between 1949 and 1951, the castle was used as a tractor school, and between 1953 and 1955 as an agricultural school. In 1975, the Sânnicolau Mare City Hall transformed the castle into the "Béla Bartók" Museum, inaugurated in 1981. In the 1980s, the castle also housed the House of Pioneers.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, it became a discotheque and computer club, later adapted as the House of Culture and City Museum. Today, Nakó Castle shines again, being a cultural gem in the heart of Banat, reminding of its glorious past and its future full of potential.
Source: https://storyinmyliveblog.home.blog/2020/07/20/castelul-nako-sannicolau-mare/
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