Teleki Castle

In 1319 the name of the settlement still figured as Cnezeg and Knezeg, but at the end of this century it already occurred in the form of Gernyezeg as well. In 1405 Sigismund von Luxemburg  conferred the estate to Antal Erdélyi de Somkerék, the later vice-palatine, for his merits in the Battle of Nicopolis; until the mid-17^th century it remained in the possession of this family. The Gorneşti castle and its castellan were first mentioned in a written document from 1477. This building endowed with two big corner bastions, three smaller towers and a gate tower was encircled by a water ditch into which the water of the Mureş was channeled.

After the Erdélyi family remained without successors in 1642, the estate and the castle entered the possession of Dénes Bánffy (IV) de Losoncz. After his execution Prince Mihály Apafi conferred the estate to Mihály Teleki de Szék. This family carefully preserved Gorneşti until the mid-20^th century. László Teleki (II) government councillor started the building of the castle that can be seen today. He had the fortress in ruins pulled down in 1772 and, by using the main walls and the vaulted cellars, started to build a Baroque castle. The castle was designed by Andreas Mayerhofer from Salzburg, the manufacturers were craftsmen from Târgu Mureş. The construction work took place in several stages; the castle and its environment got their final form  in 1802. The construction work was finished by József Teleki (VI); he transformed the French park into an English garden.

The Second World War destroyed the model farm operated by Mihály Teleki (XII). In September 1944 the family fled to Hungary from the Soviet troops, and when they returned in the spring of the following year, they found the despoiled castle.

After the communists took over the rule, the members of the Teleki family also experienced the ordeal of Transylvanian landowners. The castle can thank its survival to the fact that in 1946 Mihály Teleki offered it to the university of medicine from Târgu Mureş, in this way it was not nationalized as an agricultural estate in 1949, but remained under the supervision of the Ministry of Health, and for decades it housed a TBC Preventorium. After the regime change the family were in lawsuit for their rightful property for years until they received a favourable sentence in 2006. The present owner of the castle is Kálmán Teleki (Puy). The building and its park can be visited.