APAFI MANOR

Mălâncrav (Almakerék) appears for the first time in written sources in 1305, when it is mentioned as a possession of the Apafi family, originating from the Becse-Gergely clan. The charter records the moment when the sons of Apa, Gergely and Jakab, as well as their brother Miklós’s son, Gergely, divide their Transylvanian estates after a long legal dispute. The document is of great importance, as it lists the clan’s ancient estates along the Târnava and Someș rivers, among which Mălâncrav is also included. Further valuable information about the Apafi family’s estates is contained in a charter from 1560, which records the division of property among István, Imre and András Apafi, as well as their uncle, Gergely. From this source it is known that by the mid-16th century the family already possessed manor houses in Ibașfalău (today Dumbrăveni, Erzsébetváros), Nușeni (Apanagyfalu), Viișoara (Csatófalva) and Mălâncrav, of which those in Ibașfalău and Nușeni were considered the most significant. The manor house in Mălâncrav with two rooms and a vaulted cellar may have been built at the end of the 16th century or the beginning of the 17th century, using materials from the „deserted house” mentioned in the document. Its commissioner was probably the lord lieutenant of Küküllő County, Miklós Apafi (VII), or his son, the princely councillor György Apafi (III).

The manor house was later rebuilt in several phases, the first major works taking place in the early 1650s at the request of the widow of György Apafi (III), Borbála Petki. In the 1670s, their son, Prince Mihály Apafi I, and his wife, Anna Bornemisza, also carried out construction works in Mălâncrav. At that time, the building was extended with three vaulted and richly decorated rooms, thus losing its symmetrical layout but gaining its current impressive size. Mihály Apafi I died in April 1690 in the fortress of Făgăraș (Fogaras), after which the family no longer resided in Mălâncrav. His only son who reached adulthood, Mihály Apafi II, was considered only nominally Prince of Transylvania, as he never actually ruled. He had been elected prince as early as 1681 during his father’s lifetime, but due to his young age he could not participate in politics. The Diploma Leopoldinum introduced a gubernium until he came of age, but in the year he reached adulthood, Emperor Leopold I had him interned in Vienna, from where he could never return home. Thus, the gubernium remained in Transylvania, and under pressure from the Viennese court, Mihály Apafi II renounced the princely title in 1701, receiving in return an annual allowance and the title of imperial prince. He had no children from his marriage to Kata Bethlen, and with his death in 1713 the princely family became extinct.

After his death, the Apafi estates remained in the hands of his widow, Kata Bethlen, who in 1722 concluded an agreement with the treasury, according to which she ceded ownership of the ancestral estates in exchange for a substantial compensation, while retaining usufruct rights until her death. After Kata Bethlen’s death in 1725, the treasury took possession of the estates, but based on the inheritance contract of 1584, the Bethlen family also laid claim to them. In 1584, the Apafi and Bethlen families had concluded an agreement stating that in the event of the extinction of one family, all its property would pass to the other. Accordingly, Count Ádám Bethlen (I) initiated a lawsuit against the treasury, which ended in 1776 with a decision favorable to the Bethlen family. The treasury returned part of the ancestral Apafi estates and provided compensation for the rest. At the beginning of the 19th century, the lord of Mălâncrav was Pál Bethlen (IV), who transformed the manor house in a Neoclassical style, giving it its present form. In 1848, Romanian insurgents caused significant damage to the buildings on the estate, after which restoration works were carried out.

The Bethlen family eventually sold the Mălâncrav estate to the Szentkereszty family, and by the end of the 19th century the owners were Baron Zsigmond  Szentkereszty de Zágon and his wife, Countess Anna Haller de Hallerkő. They are considered the last aristocratic owners of Mălâncrav, as their heirs sold the estate around the turn of the century to a Hungarian bourgeois family, and in 1920 it came into the possession of the Evangelical Church.

After nationalization, the castle functioned as a cultural center. During the communist period, the condition of the building deteriorated significantly, especially after it fell out of use in its final period. In 1989, the Evangelical Church regained the building, and in 2000 it was sold to the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation. The Foundation restored the building between 2003 and 2007. The works were directed by architect Jan Hülsemann, as well as master builders Fritz Klutsch and Ernst Linzing, while the garden was designed by Catherine Fitzgerald. Since 2007, the manor house has been operating as a guesthouse, with five bedrooms, a dining room, and a library filled with old books of inestimable value.

The Apafi manor house in Mălâncrav stands near the Evangelical fortified church, on the top of the hillside. The core of the building is formed by the manor house built at the end of the 16th century or the beginning of the 17th century, which had a two-bay vaulted cellar level and, correspondingly, a two-bay ground floor. Thus, the building may originally have been a structure of two times three rooms aligned along the axis of the entrance hall and the kitchen. It was later extended, during the time of Prince Mihály Apafi I, with three vaulted rooms. The rich painted decoration of these three rooms, which disrupted the symmetry of the façade, is mentioned in later inventories as well as by István Wesselényi in his diary. On the right side of the entrance hall, towards the defensive wall of the church, were located the „dining room” and the „lord’s chamber”, while on the left side were the „lady’s chamber” and the „girls’ chamber”, from which a staircase led to the flower garden. The entrance hall, situated on the central axis of the façade, was once accessed by a wooden bridge with a sloping ramp, on the sides of which stood a pavilion each, connected to one another by a corridor. The wooden bridge was connected to the manor house, built without a porch, by a drawbridge, which could be operated with the help of a pulley mechanism.

The manor house was transformed in the early 19th century in a Neoclassical style, acquiring its present form. The elongated rectangular, single-storey building’s most beautiful element is the open porch of the main façade articulated with Ionic columns. The center of the main façade is emphasized by a strongly projecting enclosed portico, on the pediment of which is displayed a relief coat of arms preserving the memory of the Apafi family, the builders. Above the entrance, a Latin memorial plaque records the merits of the foundation that carried out the restoration.

A significant part of the architectural heritage of Mălâncrav is associated with the name of the Apafi family. The Evangelical fortified church was built by Péter Apafi in the second half of the 14th century, and was later expanded and transformed by Miklós Apafi. Its fortification took place in the 15th century. The Saxon serfs living in the settlement also took part in the construction, therefore the noble family made the church available for their use, and it remained in their possession even after they converted to the Evangelical faith, while the Apafi family adopted the Reformed religion. The special feature of the church is that its interior is decorated with spectacular 14th-century frescoes, which are considered among the most important ecclesiastical monuments of Transylvania. The frescoes were whitewashed in 1882, and were uncovered between 1913 and 1914. The church also contains a 15th-century winged altar, which is one of the oldest winged altars preserved in its original form in Transylvania. Its commissioner was also the Apafi family, and on both sides of the central image depicting the Enthroned Madonna appears the donor couple, Mihály Apafi and Klára, accompanied by their patron saints, Archangel Michael and Saint Clare.

Mălâncrav was not only the family’s ancestral estate and one of its centers of property, but also their burial place. The family’s burial chapel was located opposite the church, on the eastern side of the valley. The chapel was built by György Apafi (III), and here were buried his children who died young, himself in 1635, his son Gergely in 1637, and his wife, Borbála Petki in 1660. György Apafi (III) is mainly known for his richly decorated funerary monument, considered the masterpiece of the renowned Sibiu (Nagyszeben) stonemason Elias Nicolai. The monument was originally made for the burial chapel in Mălâncrav and can currently be seen in the Hungarian National Museum. On the top of the tomb chest is depicted the figure of the deceased, György Apafi shown in full armor, commemorating his glorious career and high social rank. Its particularity lies in the fact that the figure is depicted in a reclining, elbow-supported pose characteristic of Polish funerary sculpture. A similar example can only be mentioned in the funerary monument of György Sükösd from Tirimia (Nagyteremi), carved by the master from Cluj (Kolozsvár), Péter Diószegi, and today displayed in the History Museum of Cluj. The chapel of Mălâncrav was destroyed by Romanian insurgents in 1848, when the funerary monument of György Apafi also suffered significant damage after the chapel’s bell was dropped onto it.

It is worth mentioning that Mihály Apafi I and Anna Bornemisza, and later also the remains brought home from Vienna of their son, Mihály Apafi II, and Kata Bethlen were buried in this chapel. Their remains were transferred in 1790 to the crypt beneath the sacristy of the Evangelical church, and in 1909 they were laid to rest in the Reformed Church on Farkas Street (today Mihail Kogălniceanu street) in Cluj-Napoca.

1. Zoltán Bicsok – Zsolt Orbán, „Isten segedelmével udvaromat megépítettem…” Történelmi családok kastélyai Erdélyben. Gutenberg Publishing, Miercurea Ciuc, 2012.
2. András Kovács, Késő reneszánsz építészet Erdélyben. 1541–1720. Polis Publishing, Budapest-Cluj-Napoca, 2003.