Siria is a
\nlocality in western Romania, close to the town of Arad. Its has its cultural
\nimportance, just like many other such localities in Banat County. Siria came to
\nbe known mainly due to the great Romanian 19th century prose writer
\nIoan Slavici, who was born there in the year of the revolution, 1848. Today
\nSiria boasts a memorial museum dedicated to Ioan Slavici, which is not in the
\nhouse Slavici was born in, but in another building, which in turn is important
\nto the history and culture of the place, the Buhus Castle; its history begins
\nwith the Buhus family of Slovak origin being emblazoned by the House of
\nHapsburg. Together with the rank, the family was offered the Siria estate. It
\nwas on that estate that the Buhus Family would build three residential
\nbuildings, the most important of them being erected between 1824 and 1838 by
\nJanos Bohus, the most distinguished member of his family.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Anca Majaru is an
\narchitect specializing in heritage buildings. She studied the history of the
\nBohus Castle and is now giving us details on that.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Janos Bohus erected his building in an austere neo-classical style, typical of
\nboth the time and the area where it was built. Initially, the Bohus residence
\nwas thought out as a building with a partial basement and ground floor, with
\nfour wings of the building laid out around an inner courtyard. The edifice was
\ndesigned both for dwelling areas, drawing rooms or apartments to live in, and
\nfor adjacent areas which served the main rooms and all sorts of outhouses. The
\nmain building, the dwelling proper, had a U-shaped plan, with the short side
\nfacing the street. The reception rooms could be found here, and the status of
\nthe body facing the street was made known through the main entrance area which
\nhad a classical temple pediment with Doric columns. Outback towards the
\ncourtyard there were the outhouses serving the household. The changes the
\nbuilding underwent in time, targeted those very outhouses that were closing the
\nrectangular area. Unfortunately, the buildings rapidly fell prey to a decaying
\nprocess after World War Two and the decision was eventually taken that the
\nbuilding’s northeastern corner be brought down. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Whereas the
\nstyle of the building itself was classical, austere and in line with the
\nstandards of that time, its owners on the other hand were less conventional,
\nsays architect Anca Majaru:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Janos
\nBohus and Antonia Szogeny Bohus are the best known members of this family. They
\ntook active part in the 1848-1849 Revolution in Transylvania. Ironically, it
\nwas precisely in their castle that the Hungarian troops signed their surrender,
\nafter the battle of Seleus-Siria, to the Russian forces deployed to support the
\nAustrian army. Of equal importance was the involvement of Baroness Bohus in the
\nlocal culture and the cultural life of the Hungarian Kingdom. She was known as
\na feminist involved in the education and improvement of the locals’ living
\nstandards. The couple’s son, Laszlo Bohus, also became a major figure in the
\nlocal political circle, and gained popularity after he had opened a number of
\ncultural institutions in Arad.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A talented
\nprose writer, journalist, political activist, a friend of Romanian literature
\ngiants Mihai Eminescu and Ion Luca Caragiale, Ioan Slavici lived both in
\nTransylvania, and in Bucharest, prior to the Union of 1918. The house where he
\nlived in Bucharest no longer exists, all we know today is its location, as it
\nhappened with his native home in the village of Siria as well. For this reason,
\nin the early 1960s the Bohus Castle was seen as the ideal place to host a
\nSlavici museum. By that time, there were no survivors of the Bohus family, as
\nAnca Majaru told us:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With
\nLaszlo Bohus’ death, the male lineage of the family ended. Later, with the
\nhistorical changes in the early 20th Century, the Siria Estate was
\ngradually abandoned by the heirs. After World War Two, the castle came under
\npublic administration, and in the 1960s the authorities decided a memorial
\nmuseum should be laid out there for a great Romanian personality born in Siria,
\nprose writer Ioan Slavici. Today, the castle hosts both a collection devoted to
\nthe writer, and one devoted to composer Emil Montia. The exhibition featuring
\nIoan Slavici includes items related to his childhood, his school years in
\nSiria, then his education in Arad, Budapest and Vienna, as well as his desk,
\npart of the furniture from his home in Bucharest, manuscripts and copies of his
\nworks.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At present
\nthe Bohus Castle is well preserved and the park on the estate has recently been
\nrestored.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Siria is a place in Romania known, among other things, for being home to Buhus Castle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":128134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n