The Szentkereszty-Bethlen mansion in Câmpia Turzii

If the road has brought you to Câmpia Turzii, in Cluj County, discover an imposing manor in classical style, built somewhere in the second half of the 19th century. The building is part of a complex of 5 old castles positioned on the same geographic axis, located a short distance from each other.

This is Szentkereszty-Bethlen Manor - the manor that has seen it all. Perhaps today the walls won't tell you much, but you will surely be surprised to learn that the history of the building encompasses the main major themes in the lives of those who inhabited it: the love between Ödön Bethlen and Margit Huszár, the establishment of their family, the birth of their two children, and then the war and death, specifically the family's flight from the harsh battles of World War II and the death of the lady. The manor became a Soviet military hospital in 1945 and then, the form in which it managed to endure in the last decades was that of an educational institution.

Visit it, admire it, and let your imagination project the images of the past, which only Szentkereszty-Bethlen Manor has been able to see for more than two centuries.

The Szentkereszty family originated from Upper Hungary, in Szentkereszt. The one who linked this name to the lands in central Romania today was András Szentkereszty, who settled in Transylvania during the time of Prince Mihály Apafi I. Over the centuries, the family held various important public functions, having several estates in Trei Scaune, in the Mureș Seat and in Târnava County.

The property in Câmpia Turzii was capitalised by Baron Zsigmond Szentkereszty (II.), born in 1817. He had an important military and political activity.

After World War I, the property was bought by Count Bethlen Ödön, who lived here with his wife, Margit Huszár, and his two descendants - Katalin and Ödön, born right in the mansion.

In her memoirs, Katalin Bethlen describes the parental mansion as a true independent city: “The main building consisted of fifteen rooms. Next to the mansion there were two additional buildings, one of which housed the kitchen, the pantry and the cook's room, and the other - the laundry room and an apartment used by the family driver. To the right of the gate there was a tennis court and a bowling alley. Opposite the gate, in the courtyard beyond, there was the coachman's house, the gardener's house, a large wine cellar, the stables, the warehouse, several greenhouses and a large vegetable garden”.

In addition, an artificial lake surrounded by a small park was arranged around the mansion, which in the past communicated through a canal with the artificial lake of the neighbouring mansion, Paget. A form of cultivation of the spirit of the neighbourhood, we could say, since Lake Paget was continuously supplied with water that sprang from a nearby mound.