Bánffy Castle is a baroque building of the 18th century in
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...
, designed by the German architect
Johann Eberhard Blaumann.
Built between 1774 and 1775 it is considered the most representative for the
baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
style of
Transylvania
Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...
. 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 and I (; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor as Francis II from 1792 to 1806, and the first Emperor of Austria as Francis I from 1804 to 1835. He was also King of Hungary, List of rulers of Croatia, Croa ...
and his wife
Caroline Augusta of Bavaria were hosted in the palace during their visit in
Kolozsvár, 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 ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...
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. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
,
Minerva
Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...
,
Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
,
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 (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...
, and the coat of arms of the Bánffy family with gryphons, without crown. In the median
risalit 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,
Ştefan Luchian,
Dimitrie Paciurea,
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, Roman ...
,
Camil Ressu and others. The museum also includes works by noted Hungarian artists
József Koszta,
Károly Lotz
Lotz Károly Antal Pál, or Karl Anton Paul Lotz (16 December 1833 – 13 October 1904) was a Germans, German-Hungarian people, Hungarian Painting, painter.
Career
Karl Lotz was born in Bad Homburg vor der Taunus, Höhe, Germany, the 7th an ...
,
László Mednyánszky
Baron László Mednyánszky, also known by his Latinized name Ladislaus Josephus Balthasar Eustachius Mednyánszky (; 23 April 1852 – 17 April 1919), was a Slovaks, Slovak–Hungarians, Hungarian painter and philosopher, considered one of the ...
,
Mihály Munkácsy,
Béla Nagy Abodi
Béla Nagy Abodi (Hungarian: ''Abodi Nagy Béla''; 13 July 1918 – 9 December 2012) was a Hungarians, Hungarian Painting, painter, and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca. He studied in the class of Camil Ressu at the Academia d ...
and
István Réti. The international collection features paintings of major European artists like
Luca Giordano,
Carlo Dolci
Carlo (or Carlino) Dolci (25 May 1616 – 17 January 1686) was an Italian Baroque painter, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions.
Biography
He was born in Florence, on his mother' ...
,
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin,
Félix Ziem,
Ivan Aivazovsky,
Herri met de Bles, and
Franz Defregger, as well as sculptures of
Claude Michel,
Antoine-Louis Barye and
Ernst Barlach
Ernst Heinrich Barlach (2 January 1870 – 24 October 1938) was a German Expressionism, 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 th ...
. The graphics collection includes works of great European
printmakers of the 16th-20th centuries. Among those, the museum hosts the works of
Salvator Rosa,
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, 1808 – February 10 or 11, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the July Revolution, Revolution of 1830 ...
,
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''. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romanti ...
,
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 e ...
and
Käthe Kollwitz.
Official website of the museum
/ref>
See also
Museums in Cluj :
* Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania
* National Museum of Transylvanian History
* Water Museum
* Pharmacy Museum
* Babeş-Bolyai University Museums:
** Babeş-Bolyai University Museum
** "Emil Racoviţă" Museum of Speleology
** Museum of Mineralogy
** Botanical Museum
** 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