Bánffy Castle is a baroque building of the 18th century in
Cluj-Napoca
; hu, kincses város)
, official_name=Cluj-Napoca
, native_name=
, image_skyline=
, subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status
, subdivision_name2 ...
, designed by the German architect
Johann Eberhard Blaumann
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
.
Built between 1774 and 1775 it is considered the most representative for the
baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style of
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
. The first owner of the palace was the Hungarian Duke
György Bánffy (1746–1822), the governor of Transylvania.
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis II (german: Franz II.; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor (from 1792 to 1806) and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire, from 1804 to 1835. He assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response ...
and his wife
Caroline Augusta of Bavaria
Princess Caroline Augusta of Bavaria (german: Karoline Auguste; Mannheim, 8 February 1792 – 9 February 1873 in Vienna) was Empress of Austria by marriage to Francis I of Austria. She was a daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and P ...
were hosted in the palace during their visit in
Kolozsvár
; hu, kincses város)
, official_name=Cluj-Napoca
, native_name=
, image_skyline=
, subdivision_type1 = County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Status
, subdivision_name2 = County seat
, settlement_type = City
, le ...
, between 18 and 27 August 1817. This was the first occasion when a ruler from the Habsburg family visited the city.
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the Grand title of the Emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg m ...
was also the guest of the palace between 2-4. August 1852 and 22–24 September 1887. The palace (along with the Răscruci castle of the Bánffy family) features in the reminiscences of an English governess, Florence Tarring, who worked for one of the branches of the Bánffy family during the First World War (1914-1919).
In February 1951 the council of the city decided to empty the palace to establish an Art Museum there; the works were finished in the summer of 1954. The museum was opened in the restored palace on 30. December 1965. The cinema occupying the inner yard of the palace was demolished in 1974.
The floor area of the palace is 66×48 m, its inner yard is 26×26 m. The wings on the sides include one row of rooms while the front and back wing includes two rows. The yard is surrounded by a portico at the second-floor level.
The facade is decorated with statues of
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
,
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...
,
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
,
Diana,
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
,
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...
, and the coat of arms of the Bánffy family with gryphons, without crown. In the median
risalit
An ''avant-corps'' ( it, avancorpo or , plural , german: Risalit, pl, ryzalit), a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the ''corps de logis'', often taller than othe ...
there is a gate, above this is a loggia with seven pillars.
Art museum
Since 1951, the palace has housed the National Museum of Art Cluj-Napoca, which includes, in its Virgil Cioflec collection the works of arts of many important Romanian artists, such as
Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu (; 15 May 1838 – 21 July 1907) was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.
There is a metro station named after Grigorescu in Bucharest. It was given his name in 1990, before which it was named after Communist army ...
,
Ştefan Luchian,
Dimitrie Paciurea
Dimitrie Paciurea (; 2 November (1873 or 1875) – 14 July 1932) was a Romanian sculptor. His representational and symbolic style contrasts strongly to the more abstract style of his contemporary and co-national Constantin Brâncuși.
Born in ...
,
Theodor Pallady
Theodor Pallady (; 11 April 1871 – 16 August 1956) was a Romanian painter.
Biography
Theodor Pallady was the son of Ioan Pallady and Maria Cantacuzino, the older sister of Romanian diplomat Neculai B. Cantacuzino. He was born in Iași, Romani ...
,
Camil Ressu
Camil Ressu (; 28 January 1880 – 1 April 1962) was a Romanian painter and academic, one of the most significant art figures of Romania.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in Galați, Ressu originated from an Aromanian family that migrated ...
and others. The museum also includes works by noted Hungarian artists
József Koszta
József Koszta (27 March 1861 – 29 July 1949) was a Hungarian painter whose major works include ''Girl with Geraniums'', ''Corn Snappers'' and ''Woman Drying Plates''.
Life
Born on 27 March 1861, Koszta trained at various schools of art, i ...
,
Károly Lotz
Lotz Károly Antal Pál, or Karl Anton Paul Lotz (16 December 1833 – 13 October 1904) was a German- Hungarian painter.
Career
Karl Lotz was born in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany, the 7th and youngest surviving child of Wilhelm Chr ...
,
László Mednyánszky
Baron László Mednyánszky or ''Ladislaus Josephus Balthasar Eustachius Mednyánszky'' ( sk, Ladislav Medňanský) (23 April 1852 – 17 April 1919), a Slovak- Hungarian painter-philosopher, is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history ...
,
Mihály Munkácsy
Mihály Munkácsy (20 February 1844 – 1 May 1900) was a Hungarians, Hungarian Painting, painter. He earned international reputation with his Genre works, genre pictures and large-scale Christian art, biblical paintings.
Early years
Munk ...
,
Béla Nagy Abodi
Béla Nagy Abodi (Hungarian: ''Abodi Nagy Béla''; 13 July 1918 – 9 December 2012) was a Hungarian painter, and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca. He studied in the class of Camil Ressu at the Academia de Belle-Arte in Buc ...
and
István Réti
István Réti (26 December 1872 – 17 January 1945) was a Hungarian painter, professor, art historian and leading member, as well as a founder and theoretician, of the Nagybánya artists' colony, located in what is present-day Baia Mare, ...
. The international collection features paintings of major European artists like
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain.
Ear ...
,
Carlo Dolci
Carlo (or Carlino) Dolci (25 May 1616 – 17 January 1686) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions.
Biography
He was born in Florence, ...
,
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin (23 March 1809 – 21 March 1864) was a French Neoclassical painter. His most celebrated work, '' Jeune Homme Nu Assis au Bord de la Mer'' ("Young Male Nude Seated beside the Sea"), from 1836, is held in the Louvre.
Bio ...
,
Félix Ziem
Félix Ziem (26 February 1821 – 10 November 1911) was a French painter in the style of the Barbizon School, who also produced some Orientalist works.
Biography
He was born Félix-Francois Georges Philibert Ziem in Beaune in the Côte-d' ...
,
Ivan Aivazovsky
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (russian: link=no, Иван Константинович Айвазовский; 29 July 18172 May 1900) was a Russian Romantic painter who is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Baptized a ...
,
Herri met de Bles
Herri met de Bles, also known as Henri Blès, Herri de Dinant, Herry de Patinir, and ''il Civetta'' (c. 1490 – after 1566), was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter, native of Bouvignes or Dinant (both in present-day B ...
, and
Franz Defregger
Franz Defregger (after 1883 Franz von Defregger) (30 April 1835 – 2 January 1921) was an Austrian artist known for producing genre art and history paintings set in his native county of Tyrol.
Biography
Franz Defregger was born on 30 April ...
, as well as sculptures of
Claude Michel
Claude Michel (20 December 1738 – 29 March 1814), known as Clodion, was a French sculptor in the Rococo style, especially noted for his works in marble, bronze, & terracotta.
Life
He was born in Nancy to Anne Adam and Thomas Michel, an un ...
,
Antoine-Louis Barye
Antoine-Louis Barye (24 September 179525 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an ''animalier'', a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the known sculptor Alfred Barye.
Biography
Born in Paris, France, B ...
and
Ernst Barlach
Ernst Heinrich Barlach (2 January 1870 – 24 October 1938) was a German expressionist sculptor, medallist, printmaker and writer. Although he was a supporter of the war in the years leading to World War I, his participation in the war made him c ...
. The graphics collection includes works of great European
printmakers of the 16th-20th centuries. Among those, the museum hosts the works of
Salvator Rosa
Salvator Rosa (1615 –1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19th ...
,
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian Classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric " ...
,
Honoré Daumier
Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...
,
Théodore Géricault
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is ''The Raft of the Medusa''. Although he died young, he was one of the pioneers of the Romantic ...
,
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
and
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''T ...
.
Official website of the museum
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See also
Museums in Cluj :
* Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania
The Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania ( ro, Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei; hu, Erdélyi néprajzi múzeum) is situated in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. With a history of almost 100 years, the ''Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania'' is one of the fi ...
* National Museum of Transylvanian History
The National Museum of Transylvanian History ( ro, Muzeul Național de Istorie a Transilvaniei, hu, Erdélyi Történelmi Múzeum) is a history and archaeology museum in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It features a permanent exhibition, as w ...
* Water Museum
* Pharmacy Museum
* Babeş-Bolyai University Museums:
** Babeş-Bolyai University Museum
** "Emil Racoviţă" Museum of Speleology
** Museum of Mineralogy
** Botanical Museum
The Harvard University Herbaria and Botanical Museum are institutions located on the grounds of Harvard University at 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Botanical Museum is one of three which comprise the Harvard Museum of Natural ...
** Museum of Paleontology and Stratigraphy
** Zoological Museum
Notes
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banffy Palace, Cluj-Napoca
Bánffy family
Buildings and structures in Cluj-Napoca
Palaces in Romania
Houses completed in 1775
Baroque architecture in Romania
Historic monuments in Cluj County