Nopcsa Castle, Săcel

The manor in the village of Săcel (Sântămăria-Orlea commune) took its present form around 1872 under Elek Nopcsa, after the estate passed from the Naláczy family to the Nopcsas. The two-storey building has a stepped gable on its west front, a rectangular crenellated corner tower and a small octagonal turret. Elek Nopcsa farmed the estate in a modern way and was the first to bring a threshing machine to Hunedoara county.

The manor is tied to the name of his son, Franz Nopcsa (1877–1933) — adventurer, Albanologist and one of the pioneers of paleobiology. In 1895 his sister Ilona found dinosaur bones on the family estate, and studying them led Nopcsa to the theory of insular dwarfism, which explains the dwarf dinosaurs of Țara Hațegului.

After decades of decay, the manor, owned by Hunedoara County Council, was restored and reopened to visitors on 1 September 2025, together with the Museum of Dacian and Roman Civilisation in Deva, with the exhibition “Nopcsa Castle – A Journey Through Time in Țara Hațegului”. The photo dates from 2012, before the restoration.