Rebirth of the Telekiek Castle in North-Eastern Transylvania

The castle is being restored at a cost of approximately 51 million lei (4 billion Hungarian forints), 98 per cent of which is non-repayable EU funding. The work is due to be completed in 2028.

Close to collapse

The Teleki Castle in Komlód is one of the outstanding examples of Transylvanian Baroque architecture, but its condition has been deteriorating for decades. In 2020, the local government of Bistrița-Năsăud County began emergency preservation work on the building to save it from collapse. A protective roof was erected over the roofless building to protect it from rain and further deterioration.

Its renovation has been one of the priorities of the county government for years, it is part of the county's development strategy, and now it has been successfully funded by the EU.

After restoration, the historic building will be converted into a cultural centre, and the surrounding area will also be landscaped. Due to the urgency of the situation, the county council announced the construction contract in July.

Built by the Wesselényi family, it became part of the Teleki estate in the 19th century

The Teleki Castle in Komlod was built by István Wesselényi and his wife, Daniel Polixénia, in the Baroque style and completed in 1756. The single-storey property has fourteen rooms, a cellar and nearly 8,000 square metres of interior space. The coat of arms of the Wesselényi and Daniel families above the entrance is the work of Anton Schuchbauer, a renowned baroque sculptor from Cluj-Napoca, from 1786.

The castle became the property of the Teleki family in the 19th century. After its nationalisation, it was used as offices and a grain warehouse. After the change of regime in 2008, it was taken over by the Banská Štiavnica County Council, which had no money to renovate it, and tried to sell it in 2015 for €110,000, but could not find a buyer. Its renovation is very timely, as experts warned in 2016 that it would be years before the building, which had been left unattended for decades, would collapse. Among other structural problems, they found a partial basement, the roof of the property had completely collapsed and the walls were leaking.