Öntöttvas verandarács Bonchidán
Cast-iron Veranda Grill in Bonchida/Bonțida

Summary/Abstract: A lot of chapters of the construction history of Bánffy castle’s in Bonchida occupy prominent places among the pages of the national arts and culture history. One of them is the west side veranda as an early-romantic relic of the 19th century. The reconstruction of the west wing of the castle is linked by the literature to Antal Kagerbauer, architect-builder in Kolozsvár, despite the fact that at the moment no concrete evidence proves it, so the real construction time is also controversial. As a result of the reconstruction, the veranda was built closing the open veranda with a neo-gothic style ogee shaped tracery, which is unique with its enormous size and the complexity of the design not even in Kagebauer’s life work (who otherwise was very opened to the technical novelties of his age), nor we can find a similar example of the early usage of cast-iron in the whole Transylvanian architectural heritage. The neo-gothic veranda was transformed in the second part of the 1930’s, the cast-iron tracery was demolished and the veranda façade was closed with neo-gothic windows. The name of Károly Kós has arisen as the designer. Three fundamental questions arisen related to the veranda in Bonchida and especially to its neo-gothic grill. Who was the architect, when was it built, and what was its material. But after reviewing, one thing is sure: we have not found the certain answer to these questions. At the same time, while looking for these answers new questions are being formulated. The result of the present, almost ten-year long renovation process of the castle could reveal this secret. It is possible that by investigating the structures to be renewed, as far as possible, answers can be found concerning the veranda among the several ones originating from the troubled building-history of the castle. In our study we try to investigate this issue with our own methods.

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