Lahovary Manor

Summary

A boyar manor in Budești (Vâlcea County) tied to the Socoteanu and Lahovary families, listed as a historic monument and dated to the first half of the 19th century. After decades as a state-farm headquarters and rennet factory it passed in 2004 to the Lahovary heirs, was sold to a private owner and is awaiting full restoration.

Legal status

Listed historic monument (LMI VL-II-m-B-09690); returned to the Lahovary heirs in 2004 after post-1989 claims ↗

History

The estate of Budești was bought in 1757 by the Socoteanu family, and a single-storey manor already stood there when Ioan (Iancu) Lahovary married Bica Socoteanu in 1811; the estate then passed to the Lahovary family. A regional article states the present manor was raised after 1816, while the owners' site calls a rebuilding by the Socoteanu family a hypothesis. After the death of George I. Lahovary in 1909 the estate was divided among his sons, and according to the owner's site Dimitrie G. Lahovary probably carried out an extension completed in 1922. Soviet troops occupied the manor in 1944; after the 1945 land reform it became the headquarters of a state farm and in the 1970s a factory for rennet and juices, which badly damaged it. It returned to the Lahovary heirs in 2004, without part of the land, and was sold to a private owner the same year. A 2025 article calls the building fragile and awaiting full restoration, not yet open to the public but visible from the road.

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