Botești Castle

Summary

An interwar villa-castle at Botești in Alba County, built in the late 1930s as the summer residence of the engineer and prime minister Ion Gigurtu. Damaged by fire during the filming of a 1980s war film, it has since been consolidated in part and repeatedly offered at auction.

Legal status

Taken over by the state after WWII; sold by Alba County Council in 2004 to a private buyer; offered at auction in 2019-2020 ↗

History

The castle was built in the interwar period, in 1936-1939 according to press reports, for Ion Gigurtu, an engineer and prime minister. It served as his family's summer residence and as the administrative seat of a mining company. After the Second World War the state took it over; it was used as a school and pupils' camp and, in the 1980s, passed to a military unit. Parts of Sergiu Nicolaescu's film Noi, cei din linia întâi were shot there and the building was set on fire for a battle scene, which severely damaged it. In 2004 Alba County Council sold it for 4.6 million lei to an Italian businessman, who planned a hotel and carried out consolidation works. It was later offered at auction, at 295,000 EUR in 2019 and 275,000 EUR in 2020.

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