Sântămăria-Orlea
A commune near Hațeg with Kendeffy Castle, a church from around 1300 and the Sânpetru dinosaur fossil site.
Sântămăria-Orlea is a commune in the Hațeg Country, made up of Sântămăria-Orlea (the seat), Balomir, Bărăștii Hațegului, Bucium-Orlea, Ciopeia, Săcel, Sânpetru, Subcetate and Vadu. The seat, first recorded in 1315, lies 3 km south-east of Hațeg, on the left bank of the Strei.
The village has the church of the Cândea knezes, now Reformed, built towards the end of the 13th century, with mural paintings from 1311 and from around 1400, and Kendeffy Castle, built in 1782 by Count Elek Kendeffy and remodelled in Gothic Revival style in the second half of the 19th century, set in an English-style park. Nationalised after the war, the castle became a hotel in the 1980s; it is now closed and cannot be visited.
The commune also holds the Nopcsa family manor at Săcel, the ruins of the royal fortress of Hațeg at Subcetate (13th century), Saint George's Church in Sânpetru (14th century) and the Sânpetru dinosaur fossil site, a 5 ha reserve in the Hațeg Country Dinosaurs Geopark — where Franz Nopcsa made his first palaeontological finds in 1895.
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Reformed Church, Sântămăria-Orlea
The church of the Cândea knezes, built around 1280 — one of the oldest churches in the Romanian lands, with murals dated 1311.
Hațeg Country
Nopcsa Castle, Săcel
The Nopcsa family seat, linked to the paleontologist baron Franz Nopcsa — restored and reopened to the public in 2025.
Hațeg Country
Kendeffy Castle
The Kendeffy family's neo-Gothic castle from 1782, a former hotel, now closed — it can only be seen from outside.
Sântămăria-Orlea
St George's Church, Sânpetru
A 14th-century knez church with Roman stones and an ancient bust set into its façade.
Sântămăria-Orlea