Castles as our heritage
It was after the revolution, in the first grade, when I saw the Sissi trilogy on a videotape. Our elderly neighbours, uncle Zoli and aunt Sárika, invited us – and half of the tenants of the entire building – to these movie nights, three days in a row. I couldn’t wait to see the fabulous dresses, the wonderful hairdos, and the splendour of the castle!
As a teenager, I visited the Schönbrunn Palace, but I had my first real experience of a castle much later.
On the occasion of a camp, I had the opportunity to spend one week at the Daniel Castle in Tălișoara. Yes, I know, it’s not a fancy castle, nor is its size imposing. But it is age-old – its construction was completed in 1680 –, and was inhabited by the noble Daniel family. I could trace the history of the social and political rise of the family through some restored frescoes. In the Constantinople room, the mural above the bed depicts a scene of the payment of taxes from the period of the Principality of Transylvania.
What could the everyday life of the nobility have been like at the Daniel Castle? I tried to imagine it under the cellar arches of the Cellarium Slow Down Spa.
Szidónia Fazakas-Csoma