After the Mongolian campaign in 1241-1242, the area around Brâncoveneşti was transferred to the Losonci family. Its owners often alternated. The estate in 1467 was confiscated from its formal owners who took part in a conspiracy against king Mathias Corvinus and it was donated to the court knight János Ongor as a royal gift. Later the estate had multiple owners, from legal counsellors to lords and reigning princes. In 1660 Prince György Rákoczy II. in his will donated the estate to his royal chancellor János Kemény who later became a Prince himself. The castle remained the property of the Kemény family for nearly three hundred years. Between 1926 and 1944, the writers of the Transylvanian Helikon Society founded by János Kemény and the Saxon and Romanian writers who created in the spirit of transilvanianism gathered here. The local population completely looted the castle at the end of the 2nd World War. Later, it housed a correctional facility, a prison, and a home for children and women with disabilities. In 1989 after the regime change, the heirs reclaimed and regained the castle.
Click on the play button to listen
