Haller Castle Coplean

Kapjon, Romania, Romania

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Haller Castle (Castelul Haller) in Coplean (Kapjon), near Cășeiu in Cluj County, Romania, originated as a late 16th-century Renaissance manor built by Prince István Bocskai, later fortified in the 17th century under György Haller with defensive stone walls, merlons, circular bastions at the corners, and a gate tower. Extensively rebuilt and expanded into a Baroque palace between 1750 and 1770 by György Haller IV and his son János, it features a symmetrical eastern main facade, consolidated fortifications, reorganized outbuildings, and ornate interiors including distinctive shell motifs above windows that earned it the nickname "castle with shells," constructed partly from stone of the nearby Roman castrum at Cășeiu. Nationalized after 1948 and used as an agricultural cooperative headquarters, the once-grand estate amid its rectangular domain has since fallen into ruin despite partial restitutions, remaining a poignant relic of Transylvanian noble architecture.