Banffy Castle is considered to be the most haunted place in Romania. It is the largest castle in Transylvania, one of the major Baroque attractions of Romania. Banffy Castle in Bontida, also known as the Versailles of Transylvania or Electric Castle has a background history going back seven centuries and is attested from the early fourteenth century. The great architectural monument is situated in Bontida village, less than 30 kilometers from the city Cluj-Napoca, on the road leading to Baia Mare. The castle is on of the scariest in the world, next to Bodelwyddan Castle (Wales), Predjama (Slovenia), Flossenburg (Germany) or Miranda (Belgium), according to Adevarul.
Between 1437 and 1543, the Banffy family built the castle near Somesul Mic River, a castle with four towers, where its members lived until 1944, when they were evacuated by the Germans, who wanted to turn the castle into a military hospital. The palace operated as a military hospital until after the war. The castle and its grounds are said to be haunted by the restless spirits of those who died there while it functioned as a hospital. Nazi ghostly silhouettes have also been seen wandering around the place.
Between 1740 and 1750 by an order of Denes Banffy the castle has changed, being rebuilt in Baroque style adding a gallery of statues, mandatory for an aristocratic residence at the time. Among the new buildings are numbered in the manege, some stables and dwellings for servants.
A number of legends appeared over the time, some saying the castle is haunted by ghosts. They say all started with a young girl who lived in the castle and got together secretly with someone outside the palace. Because the stableman saw her sneaking out the castle, the young girl plotted the killing. She seduced him and stabbed him with a knife. No one can know for sure if this ever happened, but a team of specialists in detecting ghosts came to the castle. They also found secret passages.
When they were ten years old, two local girls came across a secret underground tunnel. One end of the tunnel was at the castle, while the other was at the Greek-Roman Church, and the place was provided with some sort of transportation. Children played in the tunnel until locals decided to have it blocked. Children once encountered many bats flying in the tunnel, although there had never been any other bats in the area.
In 1990 the castle was declared a historical monument, and in 1999 the revamping began with the support of several institutions, Romanian and foreign organizations, under the patronage of Prince Charles of Wales, who visited the castle several times. For the past 13 years of renovation, the expenses exceeded EUR 3 million and only a small part of the castle was brought to light, namely the kitchen’s building, turned into a coffee house, some of the accommodation places and the stables.
Info taken from:
https://www.romaniajournal.ro
http://www.ancient-origins.net
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Note: All pictures are taken by me, March 2018
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