Stubenberg Castle, Săcueni

Summary

A Baroque mansion in Săcueni (Bihor County), built from the 1750s-60s by the Dietrichstein counts with a historicist wing added c. 1906, and later owned by the Stubenberg family. Municipal property since nationalisation, it was a school until 2008 and since 2010 has been leased to the Saint Francis Foundation, which runs a children's home and has partly restored it.

Legal status

Remained municipal property after nationalisation; the former owners' heirs' restitution claim failed; leased 2010 for 49 years ↗

History

A 15th-century Zólyomi castle on the site was demolished in 1665 and its stones reused. Count Johann Dietrichstein acquired the estate in 1728, and the Baroque west wing was built in the 1750s-60s (dated 1768 in the listing). The estate passed by marriage via the Saurau to the Stubenberg family, and a Historicist north wing and a Classicist portico were added around 1906 to plans by the Viennese architect Victor Siedec. After WWII the mansion was looted; it became a granary and from 1954 a school. A restitution claim by the former owners' heirs was unsuccessful. The school left in 2008 and the building deteriorated. In 2010 the town granted a 49-year concession to the Saint Francis Foundation of Deva, which partly restored it and runs a children's home. In 2021 the municipality planned to sell it but withdrew, and it remains municipal property awaiting full restoration.

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