Corvin Castle
Gothic and Renaissance castle of the Hunyadi family, on a rock above the Zlasti river.
Corvin Castle grew from a fourteenth-century royal keep granted in 1409 to Voicu, father of John Hunyadi. From about 1440 Hunyadi, then voivode of Transylvania and later regent of Hungary, rebuilt it on a grand scale, adding round and rectangular towers, a chapel and the Knights' Hall, a vaulted ceremonial room carried on marble columns. Work continued under his son Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, whose Renaissance loggia looks out over the gorge of the Zlasti.
The castle sits on a rock reached by a long wooden bridge on stone piers. Later owners, including the Bethlen and Apafi families, added a further wing and painted decoration. After a fire in 1854 it was restored in stages from the 1860s onwards, a process that was criticised for its conjectural detail and has since been revised. The castle is run as a museum, with the Knights' Hall, the Diet Hall, the chapel, the guild house and an archaeological display open to visitors.
Highlights
- Knights' Hall with vaults on red marble columns
- Matthias Loggia with fifteenth-century Renaissance painting
- Long timber bridge on tall stone piers
- Chapel, Diet Hall, guild house and archaeology display
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