Winners of the WEBcastle competition will travel to Brussels
The Seneschals of the Teleki-castle from Gornesti and the Henchmen of the Daniel-castle from Talisoara received invitation to Brussels from DAHR’s MEP Csaba Sógor, as a reward for their achievements in the WEBcastle competition. The contest ended on the 26th of November with an award ceremony and a castle day in the Bethlen-castle in Cris.
23 teams signed up for the WEBcastle competition launched in October. The goal of the competition was to promote castles and mansions, assess their situation and introduce them into touristic networks. In order to do so, the teams needed to research their targets’ history and formulate a vision for their future. The teams also had a chance to achieve extra points through organizing castle days and motivating local communities. The WEBcastle program is a joint undertaking of the PONT Group, Transindex, the Transylvania Trust Foundation, the Living Transylvania Association and is also a part of the PONT Group’s Castle in Transylvania project.
The PONT Group will support the winning project and will try to find suitable funding opportunities, in order to develop the castles and to integrate them into the life of the community – said PONT president András Farkas at the award ceremony. The two winning teams also received a trip to Brussels and to the European Parliament from MEPs Csaba Sógor and Gyula Winkler.
Csaba Sógor and the winners
Csaba Sógor said at the ceremony, that he is happy to support the contest because we all bear the responsibility to protect values from the past, something that is impossible to achieve without plans for the future.
“Most of the castles in Transylvania still bare the signs of the dictatorial system when the authorities did not care for the preservation of cultural heritage. I am confident that this competition will help many decision-makers to realize the economic and social value of the Transylvanian heritage, even if they do not relate to this land as fully their own” – said the MEP. Csaba Sógor feels that we need living castles that are not only masterpieces of architecture, but also represent cultural and spiritual centers of a region. This can only be achieved through the mobilization of local communities and young people.
There was a real castle atmosphere in the castle in Cris where visitors could learn about the locality’s history while listening to old music, eating gulyas and drinking hot wine.
