Toldalagi Palace, Tîrgu-Mureş

The Toldalagi Palace is located in Tîrgu-Mureş, the seat of Mureş County, Transylvania, Romania.

Between 1759 and 1772, count Toldalagi László and his wife Wass Katalina raised on their property near the Franciscan monastery of Trandafirilor Square the most beautiful and representative building for the Baroque in Tîrgu-Mureş. The beginning of the construction works was delayed by the City Council, but after 1759 when Toldalagi became judge of the Royal Table he was eventually able to realize his plans.

The palace at 11 Trandafirilor Square was built in two stages (1759—1762 and 1770-1772) based on the designs of French architect Jean Louis D'Orr. He designed an U-shaped building, but it was modified later by the addition of a new wing that closed the rear part. Thus, the building is nowadays a rectangular plan, having an interior yard with open galleries. The construction works were supervised by constructor and architect Paul Schmidt. The resulting edifice has a basement covered with semi-cylindrical arched ceilings, a ground floor with rooms lined up on the two sides of the interior yard, a mezzanine and one floor, with a large reception room in the main wing, the one facing the square. A staircase leads from the ground floor to the open gallery of the top floor, with arches supported by brick posts. From here the various rooms disposed on all four sides of the yard may be entered. The ceiling of the rooms on the floor is divided into squares and decorated with floral stucco.

The most spectacular element of the building is the main façade, beautifully decorated in accordance with the artistic precepts of late Transylvanian Baroque. The sculptures that adorn the façade were created by Baroque artist Schuchbauer Antal, author of an impressive portfolio of Baroque ornaments based on anthropomorphic motifs.

The portal of the entrance has an ample basket-handle opening, with a curved keystone. The windows are rectangular and have plaster framing both on the ground floor and on the first floor. The ones on the first floor are larger and more richly decorated, with wreaths of flowers and semi-arched “eyebrow” cornices. Some of the upper parts of these arch segments metamorphose into modeled volutes. Underneath the windows of the top floor lie panels ornamented with stucco that start at the windowsill and descend to the middle area of the façade. Other important elements that articulate the façade are the segmented lesena on the ground floor, composite-capped pilasters on the first floor and the cornice that delimits the ground floor from the first floor on the outside.

On the roof there is a triangular gable with its top severed by a curved cornice the sides of which take the shape of volutes, flanked by two ovoid skylights. The cornice of the gable and the stone framing of the skylights support busts of men placed on small trapezoid supports. These statues, sculpted by Anton Schuchbauer represent Turkish soldiers with their heads wrapped in turbans. The two coats-of-arms of the Toldalagi and Wass families are sculpted on the gable, and above them a crown symbolizing the union between the two noble families. On the façade, above the commemorative plaque an oval medallion with a richly decorated frame is visible. The medallion represents the relieved image of a crow with a ring in its beak.

The building had many functions over the years, in 1786 has been a printing house, in 1920 a bank and in 1960 was installed here the History Department of the County Museum. Currently, since 1984, the building houses the headquarters of the Ethnography Department of the Mureş County Museum.

Via. Images from here, and here.