Advent Calendar

Yaay, the countdown officially has begun!!! 

This is my favorite season of the year, with hot chocolates, plans for Christmas, lights all around in windows, beautiful decorations, candies and cookies, Christmas carols and songs, snow, ice skates, wonderful scents, beautiful trees, all the red and gold colors... Isn't it a magical season? 

Wish you all a wonderful Advent!!!

Vignettes in the garden

This year we had lots of pumpkins in the garden and after we harvested them I had to take some photos of these delicious plants. The garden turned to be photo shoot studio.

 And we had lots of nuts too. 

After the hard work of harvesting and taking the pictures I made a heart of colorful leaves that I'm sending to you my dear readers.

:)

Colors of Autumn

"Autumn is second spring when every leaf is a flower."

                                           Albert Camus

Just wanted to share a few photos that I took during the months of autumn.

It's a beautiful season here in Transylvania!

What about your home?

Hope your autumn is as beautiful as mine! :)

Transylvanian Castles - 2. part

Gorneşti - Gernyeszeg

The Teleki Castle

Yesterday we visited a lovely village, Gornesti, situated in the valley of the river Mures. 

Some of my friends came home for vacation and we made a little, one day long trip. It was so nice to hang out with the girls, we had a great day :)

The history of Gornesti (Gernyeszeg-Hungarian) dates back 700 years and on this property, before the castle was a fortress. This was mostly built of stone and had three towers and two bastions and it was surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge over it.

The first Teleki received the village with the fortress as a donation. In the 16th century Mihaly Teleki was the greatest politician in Transylvania. At the end of the 17th century the old building was demolished and Laszlo Teleki decided to build a castle in place of the fortress. The new castle was finished in 1802. 

The last owner was Count Mihaly Teleki. During and after World War II the castle was devastated and in 1949 it was nationalized. The count and his family expelled from their home and forced to live in a basement. Between 1949 and 2011 the castle was transformed into a nursing home for ill children. 

The castle was repossessed to the existing Teleki family only in 2011. 

 We made some funny pictures inside the castle :)

Unfortunately the real and old furniture, art collections and personal assets were all stolen during the war and communist era... The furniture you can see is just some replications and are used primarily for wedding pictures. 

The castle needs a thorough restoration, but it would cost a lot of money. Now-days the successors maintain the building from donations and events. 

  

The actual form of the park dates form the beginning of the 19th century. There were planted valuable and rare trees, like gingko-biloba, lime, willow, oak trees and cypresses. Part of the former ditch was transformed to a lake with a small island in the middle. Once there were wild ducks and swans too. There are grotesque sculptures around the lake.

There are some other sculptures in the park representing ancient gods and goddesses which were brought to the castle in the early 20th century from Budapest, Hungary.  

Garden with lots of roses

Won't you come into the garden?

I would like my roses to see you!

Love my boyfriends mother's garden. It's so little and cute and beautiful.

I always feel like I'm in the secret garden.

When she became widow she bought a smaller house with a small garden.

This happened almost two years ago, so the garden is one year old.

The old lady is a piano teacher and last time when we visited her she just took a lesson for a little girl.

Loved to stay and listen her music, on the other chair the little cat was sleeping.

Everything was so calm...

Little Kate, when she woke up, isn't she a cutie? :) 

She is 8 weeks old, and she had three brothers, but two boys found a place where to live, at a lovely family at a farm. One little cat unfortunately died :( 

I'm so happy Kate is healthy!

Corners and flowers of  the garden:

And a last picture about this sweetheart:

Transylvanian Castles - 1. part

Zau de Câmpie

As you know I live in Transylvania. This beautiful and unique part of Romania is full of old buildings, castles, palaces and fortresses, some of them part of our history, others having interesting stories. 

I have a plan for this summer: to visit as many castles as I can and write a mini serial about them here on my blog. 

Lets start with the castle form Zau de Câmpie.

Zau de Campie Castle of Baron Istvan Ugron

The village of Zau de Câmpie (romanian), Mezőzáh (hungarian), Sannendorf (german) is situated in the middle of the Transylvanian Plateu in Mures County and it is documented as of 25 May 1339. We visited it last week and we had a wonderful Sunday seeing the castle and the Wild Peony Reservation, the other sight of the village. 

The castle was built between 1909 and 1911 and it was the summer residence of Baron István Ugron. The castle is a real architectural calendar, having 365 windows as the days of the year, 52 rooms as the weeks of the year, 12 hallways as the months and 4 towers as the seasons. The building is surrounded by a dendrological park with many rare plants and trees. 

Zau de Campie Castle of Baron Istvan Ugron

The castle has a very romantic but sad story...

The Baron has spent years in Russia being the ambassador of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and he fell in love with one of the daughters of  Tsar Nikolai II. István Ugron asked the Princess to marry him and he built the castle as a gift for the young lady. But she asked that the whole road between the railway and the palace to be covered with gold coins. Once work started, the Princess asked the him to put gold coins so that no one can step on the Emperors head. Even if the Baron was very rich and owned huge properties, he wasn't able to satisfy her wishes. 

Unfortunately time has solved this unfulfilled love, but the Baron's heart has crushed. In 1918 the entire family of the Tsar was killed by the bolsheviks, including the Princess to. After this he retired completely from public and he came to the castle just for short visits.

After World War II the castle, the furniture and the whole property of the Baron was took by the communists. István Ugron died lonely in a poorhouse. :(

In the communist era the building received more destination from 1963 was an orphanage. These days the heirs claim the domain, the surrounding forest being already returned!

Zau de Campie Wild Peony Reservation

There is another beautiful place located a few kilometers from the village: The Wild Peony Reservation. It is considered to be the only place within the Carpathian arc where this flower grows. The peony has 10 to 30 centimeters in height, grows in clumps and has crimson red flowers. It is protected by law and it's unique in Europe. The first data about the Zau de Câmpie peonies were published in Vienna in 1846. The reservation has 270 species, subspecies and a variety of very rare plants, most of them protected by law. 

Zau de Campie Wild Peony Reservation

Unfortunately we visited the reservation too late this year and most of the flowers were already faded. So if you want to see this "fairyland" come to Transylvania in the first days of May! :)

There are beautiful forests to!