Bucharest, Feb 3 /Agerpres/ - Dalnic, Covasna county, the village where Gheorghe Doja, the leader of the peasant uprising of 1514, was born, is an oasis of clean air and peace that today brings together almost a thousand inhabitants, a quarter of whom, like in many other localities in the country, have left abroad.

The place is also a tourist attraction that offers visitors an original setting, taken from old movies.

The Gaál Mansion, built in the middle of the 19th century by Gaál Miklós and his wife, Imre Julianna, the uncle and aunt of the painter Barabás, offers such a setting, as the inscription discovered on one side of the house attests. Above, on the hill that dominates the property, there is the family crypt, according to the old custom of the families of the vases.

The mansion remained abandoned almost 20 years after the 1989 Revolution, being in an advanced state of decay. In 2012, it was taken over by the Community Foundation, a non-governmental organization from Cluj, which decided to save it and restore the entire property, a rural area at the foot of the Bodocului Mountains.

Today it is a special tourist location, full of mystery, where those who come take a real trip to the last century, in an original setting, with secular stories. Today it dominates the village of Dalnic, located halfway between Sfantul Gheorghe and Targul Secuiesc, only 20 minutes from Brasov.

Dalnic became an independent municipality in April 2004.

The construction of the edifice, now a historical monument, began in 1840 and ended in 1845, says Csiszér Gábor, executive director of the mansion.

'It was a noble family from the village of Dalnic, a very old village where there were several mansions and several such families. As far as we know, already in the 14th-15th century, there are countless families who lived in the area and who had a lot of land The Gaál family was an agricultural family and owned several hundred hectares of forest, being one of the richest families in the area, but, like all families boyars from the Sequoia, they worked in the fields and in the forest,' says Csiszér Gábor.

The Gaál family was, until the 20th century, in the village and in the mansion, and since 1910, because this family had no more male descendants, they had three daughters, the property was taken over by the Borbath family through marriage with one of them.

'At the moment, the owner is a foundation that was lucky enough to know the last heir who was from the Borbath family, Mr. Borbath who helped us a lot and from whom we bought the mansion, with the idea of saving a historical monument,' said Csiszer Gábor.

The inheriting family could not maintain the mansion from its own resources and sold it to the Community Foundation. The building was almost unoccupied for almost 20 years, before the owners returned.

'In the beginning we had no plans to put it on the tourist circuit, the important thing was to save the historical monument,' says Csiszér Gábor.

In 2011 the mansion was bought, and until 2013 it was renovated, restored, he adds. From everything that was once, the original floor, the entrance door, the windows from the outside, cupboards, other doors from the main building and a bed remained. The furniture from the Gaál family also remained in the living room with the blue fireplace, it being bought back, and the space is currently accessible to the public.

'Being a historical monument, they let us make the bedrooms upstairs, but downstairs, for example in the cellar, we couldn't even raise the doors. There we have doors of 1.60, 1.50 meters, as they were in the old days. The essential idea was the saving of the monument, which is practically the mansion. For the rest, what we did around, is done afterwards,' said the representative of the foundation.

Opposite the mansion, in the back, there is a new building, introduced in the tourist circuit with the name 'barn', because there was an agricultural building, made of wood, whose condition was not good, being demolished in 2012 and rebuilt in same style and size.

'The building contains five rooms, a mini-SPA, dining room. The third building, which is on the left, is a villa, which was also built by the Gaal family, when it had no more descendants. The three ladies, after the age of 20, they moved there. Now we have four rooms for accommodation, but the building can be rented completely, as a villa, kitchen, nursery, garden with gazebo, thus trying to offer families a possibility of self-service,' says Csiszer.

According to him, the mansion is located in an area of Covasna county where, beyond the tranquility of the place, time passes differently and you feel at home.

'First of all, our clients say that they chose this place for the peace and once they have passed the gate, they say that time passes differently here. Everything is quieter, it is a quiet but accessible village, not very far from the national road. The property being very large, we have no neighbors, there is no noise, the spaces are arranged almost as they were before, very familiar, like home. You feel at home, not like a hotel, That's it and the idea - to make the world feel at home. We can talk about going back in time, in an authentic setting of the last century.

The area is also accessible for visiting several objects of tourist interest, such as, for example, Lake Sfânta Ana, which is 20 minutes away, or the city of Brasov, which is also 20 minutes away. Also close to Targul Secuiesc, Sfantul Gheorghe, Prejmer, Tusnad, Balvanyos.

'I had clients who didn't even leave the field for four days, being tired of the urban agglomeration. Being a field of 25 hectares and if you walk for a whole day you don't leave it,' added Csiszér Gábor.

Apart from accommodation, those who stay at Gaál Mansion have an experience of noble comfort, but also a special culinary experience. The food offered here is traditional and contains local, quality ingredients, 'with taste,' says the host.

The Foundation for the Community, which deals with gifted children, restored the building according to the demands of the modern world, keeping the traditional elements and those with architectural heritage value, being transformed into a modern boarding house. The mansion is now accessible not only to tourists, but also to those who wish to visit it.

The maintenance costs are not small at all, in the conditions where only the interior is 1,000 square meters, to which the domain is added. 'The costs are very high. But we succeed,' pointed out Csiszér Gábor.

With a history of over 150 years, Conacul Gaál awaits its visitors today with its doors open. Every small detail of the relic restored in 2014 reminds of the era in which it was built, in an archaic but also charming environment, where the combination of the elegance of the 19th century and the current modern conditions offer the desired comfort. 'Being a historical monument, we wanted it to be kept as it was,' mentioned the representative of the historical monument.

Those who stop at Dalnic can also visit the fortified reformed church, which is believed to have been built in the second half of the 13th century. In 1977, the church was damaged by an earthquake. When the post-earthquake debris was removed, an inscription in runic script was found on the inner side of the west wall and a Latin inscription in the Gothic alphabet along the west and north sides, dating from the 15th-16th centuries.

The pews are painted, and the parish has three bells. The monument was restored after many years of efforts, being returned to the public almost as it was hundreds of years ago.AGERPRES(RO - author: Catalin Matei, editor: Catalin Alexandru; EN - editor: Catalin Cristian Trandafir)