The Calendar Castle of Romania

Calendar Castle Photo: Andreea Dogar and Cosmin Meca
radiocraiova.ro and greatnews.ro

Cosmin Meca wrote about a fascinating and lesser known castle in Romania, built in 1911. Its owner, Baron Istvan Ugron, was the former Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Russia. http://www.radiocraiova.ro/castelul-calenddar-o-minune-din-romania-are-365-de-ferestre-52-de-camere-si-7-terase/

Istvan is said to have fallen in love with one of Czar Nicolai II’s daughters. But when the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, the entire family and the love of his life were killed. The Baron was so heartbroken that he withdrew from public life to mourn his loss.

Istvan commissioned the castle and construction began in 1911. According to radiocraiova.ro, the construction in medieval French style, lasted three years and the castle served as Baron Ugron’s summer residence.

Located in the village called Zau de Campie, state of Mures, Istvan’s castle is known to the locals as the Calendar Castle, because all the details were constructed to reflect our modern measurements of time.

Istvan’s Calendar Castle has 365 windows, 4 towers like the seasons, 52 rooms like the weeks in a year, 7 balconies like the days in a week, and 12 hallways like the months in a year.

While the communists ruled Romania with an iron fist, the castle served various purposes. As it was always the case, communists in power were fond of appropriating things they did not own, private property and wealth they deemed bourgeois. So the communist leadership confiscated the castle’s furniture and sent it to Turda, the capital of the state at the time.

Following confiscation, the castle became a sanatorium for people infected with tuberculosis, a school, a grain depository, and, most recently an orphanage.

Presently, the Calendar Castle is listed as a historical monument and is part of the patrimony of the state of Mures. In a terrible state of decay, neglected during the communist era and now, it awaits restoration.

According to Andreea Dogar, the authorities are seeking EU funds to restore this architectural jewel. http://greatnews.ro/castelul-calendar-din-romania-are-365-de-ferestre-52-de-camere-si-7-terase/

The occasional tourist can appreciate the exterior, the façade, the turrets, and wander around the courtyard.

There are so many beautiful places in Romania that are decaying more each day while awaiting restoration. A beautiful art deco building in my home town of Ploiesti, which was used as a marriage house during the communist era, is now oozing rust, decaying with neglect; and the courtyard is covered in weeds up to the rooftop. It is where I got married in 1977 on a beautiful fall day. 

The powers that be don’t seem to be extremely preoccupied with the preservation of Romania’s rich historical past and its beautiful buildings, but are concentrating on a hurried quest for globalism.