Some of Eastern Europe’s most spectacular castles and
country houses stand forgotten among the hills and forests
of Transylvania, unmentioned by guide books and unvisited
by tourists. These were once the homes—many dating from
the Middle Ages—of the great noble families of
Hungary, Europe’s last feudal aristocracy. For 1,000 years
Transylvania was part of Hungary. But in 1920, under the
Treaty of Trianon, following World War I, Hungary
was forced to cede the country to Romania. Overnight, two
million Hungarians, ten centuries of Hungarian heritage, and
an area the size of Ireland passed into Romanian
hands.

For a while the Hungarian aristocrats continued to live in
their old homes in a world of gradually fading splendor.
The crunch came for them, as for landowners throughout
Romania, after World War II, when the Communists seized
power. The Decree collectivizing the land, and expropriating
the landlords, was passed on March 2, 1949. That very night,
the secret police of the new regime burst into their homes.
As they were led away, their furniture and paintings were
looted, their libraries and family papers hurled from the
windows onto bonfires in the courtyards. At the castle of
Cris, home of the Bethlen family since the fourteenth century, one
of Europe’s finest libraries was consigned to the flames.
Twenty thousand books were destroyed—among them an
irreplaceable collection of ancient manuscripts. Lorries
came and went for four days and nights removing furniture,
pictures, and valuables which have not been seen since. No