Transsylvania Nostra Journal

Hunedoara Castle is one of the masterpieces of the European mediaeval castle architecture. It was burnt down in 1854,and after that it entered a long-lasting process of rehabilitation. This process started as early as 1868 in a period when the Hungarian historic building conservation was at its very beginning. At the beginning Ferenc SCHULCZ and Imre STEINDL were in charge of the conservation of the castle, both pupils of the famous Viennese professor Friedrich SCHMIDT. They worked in the spirit of the purist style, tying not only to conserve the castle, but to transform it into a Neo-Gothic building suitable for a hunting residence for the kings of Hungary. Since the HABSBURG rulers never intended to visit the castle this plan was given up, and the reconstruction was not completed. After some minor interventions it was continued by István MÖLLER at the beginning of the 20th century. He dealt especially with the wrong reconstructions of his predecessors, and because of the First World War he could not accomplish his work. After the war the Romanian authorities sustained merely the maintenance of the building, and only in the 1950s and 1960s carried out an intensive rehabilitation. The castle’s present-day aspect is basically the result of this major work. A rehabilitation process started in 1997, which is still continuing in the present days, some of its aspects being highly questionable.
Keywords: Hunedoara Castle, conservation, historic building conservation