Kendeffy Castle in Sântămăria-Orlea

Kendeffy Castle stands in the village of Sântămăria-Orlea, in the Hațeg Country, a few kilometres from Hațeg, next to the village's medieval church. It was built by Count Elek Kendeffy on the site of an older family manor house: the Baroque plaque above the main entrance, bearing the arms of the Kendeffy and Bethlen families and a Latin inscription, carries the year 1782. The plaque is the work of the Cluj stonecutter József Hoffmayer. The Kendeffy family had received the estate from John Hunyadi in 1447. After 1868, Árpád Kendeffy remodelled the castle in Neo-Gothic style, to plans by József Schulcz and Ferenc Storno the Elder, who also designed the interior decoration. The remodelling took place between 1871 and 1875. In 1882 the castle hosted Crown Prince Rudolf and his wife Stephanie. An English landscape park was laid out around the castle by the landscape architect Wilhelm Klensky. After nationalisation it was used as a summer camp for children in the 1960s, and from the 1980s it operated as a hotel. In 2006 the castle was returned to the heirs of the Kendeffy family. The castle is a class A historic monument (LMI code HD-II-a-A-03446), the ensemble comprising the castle, its outbuildings and the park. It currently has no function and is abandoned and deteriorating, and many of the park's trees have been cut down. The interior cannot be visited; the building can only be seen from the outside.