A baron and his castle
The first complete book I wrote, ‘The adventures and travels of Franz Baron Nopcsa’ (for the moment, Romanian version only), took me three years to publish. I started to learn from the Internet and from local libraries about this extraordinary Transylvanian Baron, my “homeboy” as Vanessa Veselka would later write about us in the Smithsonian Magazine, and the next thing I know, two years later, I was in Albania, following his footsteps and reading “live” his travel journals in the National Library of Albania. Then I had to translate all his memoirs and journals, from German, to understand the social and political context of his times and to learn a bit about palaeontology. Writing the book wasn’t easy, and different opinions and materials received from scholars such as the late albanologist Robert Elsie, the historian Coralia Jianu and the palaeontologist David Weishampel weighted a lot. It took me years, but it was worth it. Now I’m proud to say that my book is being quoted in different materials and publications by all kind of researchers, from students to highly ranked scholars, such as Romania’s greatest palaeontologists, Vlad Codrea and Dan Grigorescu. And the greatest honour was to be featured in the Smithsonian Magazine.
Vanessa Veselka, the american award-winning novelist in charge with the writing of the article, was referred to me by the chief editor of Smithsonian Magazine, to give her a hand, as an expert in Baron Nopcsa’s biography. Arriving in Transylvania wasn’t much of a cultural shock for her, since she traveled through the former Republic of Jugoslavia as a teenager, and got to know this part of Europe. Her shock was to realise that such a great personality, as Nopcsa, was forgoten, and to see his legacy, like for example his castle, fallen into ruins.
'In the corner, an ornate wrought-iron spiral staircase leads up to nowhere, and I see light coming through a hole in the roof.'
'A grand staircase lit by a round, cathedral-like window of leaded glass.'
It was then when we agreed to tell the world this story not only to inform people about Nopcsa but also to make a difference, to educate about the place he called home and to put a bit of pressure upon the ones responsible for the current situation of the castle. I know it wasn’t easy for her to comprise in a 4k words article all there is important to say about Nopcsa and to make a case for saving the castle too.
It wasn’t easy, but Vanessa did it, and I’m very grateful, because this gave me the opportunity to further educate on that and to do an act of cultural activism by publishing an open letter to the Romanian Minister of Culture, concerning Nopcsa Castle.
Now, after about a decade of work for the restoration of Nopcsa's memory in his homeland and after convincing the authorities to fund the castle's rehabilitation, the former ruin lives again, a brand new life and it eventually received the well-deserved chance of being transformed into a museum and cultural center.
