Corvin Castle - Huniazilor - Hunedoara, Transilvania

Corvin Castle - Huniazilor - Hunedoara - details and images

Hunedoara castle, called Corvin Castle, the Corvin or Huniazilor is the medieval fortress of Hunedoara. This architectural monument dating from the fourteenth century is representative of medieval Gothic art in Europe and was built on the site of an old Roman fort.

The first owner of this Gothic architectural monument was prince Voicu, Hunyadi's father, who received the castle as a gift from King Sigismund I of Luxembourg.

Access to the castle is a wooden bridge supported by four massive pillars of stone, placed in Zlasti stream bed, leaving the court hussars and the recess that houses the statue of St. John of Nepomuk, patron and trecererilor bridges over water.

The first major objective is new gate tower, a rectangular shape, which impresses the massive tower in the ground floor layout with a vaulted space, the site is to note the presence of the fence, where a fireplace, there being at this Since the ticket. From here you go, easily, in the prison castle, which maintains a massive wooden door.

Matthias Loggia is located at the exit gate of the new tower, to the left, is considered the earliest manifestation in architecture, the Renaissance. The loggia floor are preserved only in fresco painting lay in Transylvania that period and the Golden Chamber, hosts exhibition space "objects from the collections of the Museum Corvin Castle Hunedoara.

The chapel is located on the eastern side of the castle, there are possible through access to the loggia Matthias staircase, leading to the chapel gallery.

Ladies room, is placed at the first floor of the New Gate Tower, corridor above the entrance to the castle. Initially, there was only one level of defense in this tower, and in the seventeenth century is transformed into the living room for the ladies of the castle. Here you can see a set of furniture belonging to the nineteenth-century eclectic style, consisting of a table, sideboard, cabinet.

From here, crossing the spiral staircase, enters the Hall, Grand Palace hall located on the floor. It is built in late Gothic style, its interior was radically changed in the seventeenth century during the reign of Gabriel Bethlen, by removing the entire stone Gothic architecture, and its division, resulting in rooms with different functionalities. It is worth mentioning that the first level, resulting from this intervention, it retains traces of a fresco painting, presenting images noble and fortifications of the time.

On leaving the Hall, at the right is a stone staircase which leads to Capistrano Tower floor, which had space destination host of the XV century monk John of Capistrano.

Exiting the Capistrano Tower is on the same scale on the right side is a ladder leading to the second floor of the Southern Palace, the cameras used in the eighteenth century as well as administration offices for the iron mines of Poiana Rusca Mountains. Now here is the ethnographic exhibition. From here, run the camera platform known as the New Gate Tower, built in the seventeenth century as a munitions storage area. This archaeological exhibition is arranged.

From this exhibit goes through ethnographic exhibition is a wooden staircase descends to the first floor of the Southern Palace, craft workshops serving the mining administration.

From here go out again into the courtyard of the castle, and the right to enter the ground floor corridor of the old gate tower, a rectangular tower, provided with two levels of defense. Old gate tower was painted in fresco in the time of King Matthias, traces of it still being visible on the north side. And this part of the castle was changed at the time of Prince Gabriel Bethlen, the fifteenth century abolishing entrance to the tower and building a defensive bastion called White Tower.

Using neo-Gothic gallery you can see some living rooms, located on the first floor of the Palace than to the city, room to keep some elements of late Renaissance bill. From here, you can visit the palace dining room.

Returning to the patio, the circuit continues with a visit to the fountain, which is accompanied by a presentation inscription placed on one of the abutments of the chapel.

From here visiting artillery terrace, slightly modified in the nineteenth century, where there is a nice perspective to bear pit, the northern palace, chapel and courtyard fountain, but also to the contemporary city.

The last objective is the Hall of Knights, a tooth of the most interesting places in Transylvania secular fifteenth century. Here operates military equipment exhibition, with pieces that take up an extended chronological period (XIV-XIX centuries). Here we can see an inscription about the time of construction of the halls.

Over the centuries, and circulated a story that explains the name Corvinus attributed to the noble family that has received the castle as a gift from King Sigismund I of Luxembourg. According to legend, the raven that holds in its beak and a gold ring is engraved on the Corvin family crest was not chosen by chance. It is said that Hunyadi was the illegitimate son of Sigismund I of Luxembourg, King of Hungary, with a beautiful woman in the country Hategului named Elizabeth. To guard against dishonesty, her husband King gave one of his warriors, Voicu, and also giving them a ring as a gift for the unborn child, but also because they can be recognized when you grow and go royal court.

Legend says that during a trip that his family made a Voicu, they stopped for lunch and looked on the towel ring that were put victuals. A raven, attracted by the brightness of the ring stole, tried to leave with him. Hunyadi, who was then just a kid, took a bow and kill the raven, catching ring. When he rose and went to the royal court, Iancu told this story, and the king was impressed and decided that the symbol of the raven family Hunedoara be a gold ring in its beak. Moreover, this noble family name derives from the Latin Corvus, "which means" raven, a bird that symbolizes something else in the Middle Ages, namely, wisdom and longevity.

Corvin Castle's modernization works have started just after the death of the prince Voicu, when it was inherited by his son, Iancu de Hunedoara. This castle was used mainly as a noble residence, proof being the lack of perimeter defense side.

In the Castle Huniazilor, not far from the chapel, there is a fountain, which also has its legend.

It says that this fountain was dug by three Turkish prisoners who Hunyadi castle keeps them and who promised that she would release if they dig a well with drinkable water. The prisoners, as hoping that they will win their freedom, they dug into the rock for 15 years and 28 meters deep were able to give the precious water. But meanwhile, Hunyadi died, and his wife, Elizabeth Szilagyi, decided not to promise that her husband had done their Turkish prisoners and not free them. Moreover, she gave orders that the three captives to be killed. Turkish prisoners, as a last wish, asked for permission to burn a fountain key phrase: "Water of the heart is not" as a reproach to the promise made and missed. In fact, the inscription deciphered by Michael Roman historian and orientalist Guboglu reads as follows: "Whoever wrote it is Hassan, the giaours prisoner in the city near the church." Old Arabic characters contained an inscription dating to the mid-fifteenth century. Current position of the inscription is one of the abutments of the chapel.

Over the centuries, the castle had several owners, but they had held for short periods of time. One of the owners Huniazilor Castle, which has made some modifications, was prince of Transylvania, Bethlen Gabor. From his command, between 1618-1623, were built two-storey south wing and one in the northern wing. Over time, Corvin Castle was destroyed by several fires being restored several times: from 1870-1880, with support from architects Imre Steindl and Schulek Frigyes, between 1965-1970 and between 1993-1995.

The uniqueness of the monument lies in Hunedoara high degree of representativeness for military architecture in South-Eastern Europe of the fifteenth century, he developed the elements intrununind civil architecture, the Palace Grand is a French-inspired building, unique in the space dominated by the Hungarian kingdom that period, illustrating the greatness of a great family, the Hunedorestilor, able to borrow architectural designs from a space that houses one of the most brilliant of medieval civilizations: France.

Other elements that transform the castle of Hunedoara in a singular case, subsequent interventions are fifteenth century (construction of the seventeenth century, the restoration of the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century), which offers visitor a unique mixture of architectural elements belonging to the Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic styles.

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