BETHLEN CASTLE

Criș (Keresd) was one of the ancient estates of the Bethlen family. In 1305, when the sons of Apa from the Becse-Gergely family – Miklós, Gergely, and Jakab – divided their paternal inheritance, Criș was allotted to Gergely, who later died without heirs. After Gergely’s death in 1325, the village was inherited by Jakab, considered the forefather of the Bethlen de Bethlen family, and from then on it remained in uninterrupted Bethlen ownership until the nationalization of 1949.

Little is known about the initial construction works, it is likely that an early manor house stood in the area, but we do not have precise data about this. The first major building phase took place around 1559, when royal chief counselor György Bethlen (I) and his wife, Klára Károlyi, had the old manor transformed in Renaissance style. Around 1598, the works were continued by György Bethlen (I)’s son, Mihály Bethlen (II), who completed the residential building now known as the Mihály-wing, as well as the lower three levels of the adjoining old tower.

The next significant remodeling works are linked to György Bethlen (I)’s great-grandson, Elek (II). Between 1666 and 1683, the eastern wing opposite the residential building – called the Elek-wing – was built, along with the top two levels of the old tower and the Italian-style bastion fortification. The vaulted courtyard loggia adjoining the residential wing and the corresponding balustraded staircase were also likely constructed in the second half of the 17th century. Latin-inscribed heraldic plaques on the eastern wing and the old tower attest to the building activities of Elek Bethlen (II).

Over the centuries, the estate changed hands among different branches of the family. In the early 19th century, it was owned by Bálint Bethlen (II), a descendant of Elek Bethlen (II), who inherited the estates of Criș and Chiraleș (Kerlés) after the early deaths of his father, Bálint (I), and his brother, Gábor (V). After the Second Vienna Award, Bálint Bethlen (II) became chief curator of the part of the Reformed Diocese of Transylvania that remained in Romania. The Romanian authorities disapproved of the nobleman’s public engagement, so in the autumn of 1945, he was taken to an internment camp in Bucharest, and then to Târgu Jiu, where he contracted a severe lung disease. In March 1946, he could return to the castle at Criș only to die.

The last owner of the castle before nationalization was Gábor (VIII), son of Bálint Bethlen (II). Although the count’s permanent residence was in Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely), the castle was inhabited by government commissioner Béla Bethlen and his family, as well as by Gábor  (VIII)’s uncle, Count Ödön Bethlen (II).

After nationalization, the castle remained for a time under the management of the Historical Monuments Directorate (formerly Direcția Monumentelor Istorice), which carried out several maintenance works. The fate of the monument took a tragic turn at the end of the 1960s, when it became a warehouse for a state agricultural enterprise. Later, in 1970, it fell victim to a devastating fire during the filming of Sergiu Nicolaescu’s movie The Immortals. As a result of the fire, the roof of the Mihály-wing was partially destroyed, while the Elek-wing’s roof was almost completely lost.

The Historical Monuments Directorate began research and excavation work on the now uninhabitable castle twice, finally the building was re-roofed, but full restoration never took place at the time. Some of the window and door frames, tiled stoves, coats of arms, inscribed stone plaques, and carved stone elements that were removed due to the works have been lost or destroyed over the years. The actual restoration began in the 1990s, when plans were made to turn the state-owned building into a luxury hotel. During this restoration, some original Renaissance details were removed from the facades and interiors, and several elements of the castle – including the staircase of the Renaissance loggia – were replaced with reinforced concrete structures.

Due to ongoing restitution lawsuits, the state interrupted the restoration works. In 2007, Gábor Bethlen (VIII)’s daughters – Anikó, Ágnes, and Éva – recovered the castle and the surrounding park, and in 2014 they entrusted the ensemble for 50 years to the Saint Francis Foundation of Deva, which is currently carrying out restoration works.

The Renaissance-style castle located in the center of the village of Criș, built on a hilltop, is surrounded by a defensive enclosure with an irregular quadrilateral layout, with elongated Italian bastions at the corners. On the western side of the courtyard lies the residential building with an arched loggia, known as the Mihály-wing, to which the castle’s most impressive element – the large cylindrical old tower – is attached. Opposite, on the eastern side, stands the two-story building constructed later, known as the Elek-wing. On the southern and northern sides of the defensive wall, a corridor with loopholes runs along the perimeter.

The oldest part of the castle complex is the residential building known as the Mihály-wing, whose basement level likely preserves the walls of the old manor house from the late 14th century. Around 1559 the manor house was rebuilt in Renaissance style, around 1598 the cylindrical residential tower was added and its final form was achieved in the mid-17th century, when a vaulted courtyard loggia supported by thick stone columns and arches was added. The loggia resembles examples from northern Hungary, including the Lorántffy Loggia of Sárospatak Castle.

One of the most distinctive features of the castle is the old tower attached to the residential building, which was built in two phases: the lower three levels date from the late 16th century during the time of Mihály Bethlen (II), while the upper two levels were added at the end of the 17th century during the time of Elek Bethlen (II). A unique feature of the tower is its top level, decorated with colorful reliefs depicting 17th-century Transylvanian guards – creations unique in Transylvania in both form and size.

On the eastern side stands the most recent building of the ensemble, the Elek-wing, dated by a stone plaque on the façade to 1683. This new building primarily housed living quarters and service rooms, but it also contained the printing press founded by Elek Bethlen (II) in 1684. In the northern part of the Elek-wing, to the left of the main gate, was the vaulted chapel decorated with late Renaissance stuccoes – one of the most beautiful and best-preserved interior spaces of the complex. Some rooms, including the chapel, are covered by barrel vaults with lunettes, whose edges are highlighted by stucco borders with vine and lily motifs, while their surfaces are adorned with cartouches. Based on the stuccoed coats of arms appearing between the cartouches, it is assumed that the vaults were also made at the request of Elek Bethlen (II). He was also responsible for the fortification of the castle, including the defensive perimeter and corner bastions. The castle’s octagonal corner tower was clad in a rhomboid-shaped Italian bastion, which served as a small terrace without any defensive function, and the tower itself housed the women’s quarters.

From the late 16th century onward, the representative rooms of Transylvanian noble residences began to be decorated with emblems. Such painted representations were also preserved in one of the upper rooms of the old tower of the Criș castle. Only fragments of the wall paintings survive today, as they were largely destroyed by unprofessional excavations carried out in the 1970s. A total of 15 emblems were identified in very fragmentary representations on the room’s walls and window niches, each set in a medallion framed by a laurel wreath and accompanied by explanatory scrolls. The source of these emblems was Julius Wilhelm Zincgref’s volume Emblematum ethico-politicorum centuria, published in Frankfurt in 1619 and illustrated by one of the most famous engravers of the time, Matthäeus Merian. The wall paintings cannot be dated precisely, but based on their graphic model and style, they were likely created in the second half of the 17th century during the time of Elek Bethlen (II). The symbolic depictions mainly feature animal figures that symbolize the virtues of a good ruler or convey moral – often political – messages. For example, in the right medallion of the northern window, an elephant attacked by a swarm of flies symbolizes the idea of the ruler’s supremacy and is known as one of the first elephant depictions in Transylvanian wall painting.

Elek Bethlen (II) was one of the most prominent figures in the political and cultural history of late 17th-century Transylvania. His political career rose rapidly from the 1670s onward: from 1675 he served as lord lieutenant (comes supremus) of Belső-Szolnok County, from 1680 he was a member of the princely council, and from 1692 he acted as president of the Transylvanian Diet. His erudition is evidenced by the extremely rich library established on the lower level of the old tower at Criș. The most significant result of his cultural activity was the printing press he founded in Criș in 1684, through which he supported the publication of his brother Farkas Bethlen’s book on the history of Transylvania: Historia de rebus Transylvanicis. The printing work was interrupted by the 1690 invasions led by Imre Thököly, during which the original manuscript of Farkas Bethlen’s work was lost. Parts of the manuscript were later collected and processed by József Benkő, who published them between 1783 and 1793 in Sibiu (Nagyszeben) under the title Historiarum Pannonico Dacicarum libri X. a clade Mohacsensi 1526 usque ad finem seculi.

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