Țicău (Szamoscikó) – Maramureș County
The ruined gate, a wall fragment hidden by a cornfield, and the courtyard overrun with weeds and shrubs — this is all that remains of the Péchy Castle in the village of Țicău, town of Ulmeni, Maramureș County.
Péchy Castle in Țicău, built in the 19th century
In the 16th century, the estate in Țicău belonged to the Drágffy family, but it later passed through the hands of noble families such as Báthory, Kun, Wesselényi, and Tholdi. After the death of Count Sigismund Tholdi in 1810 and the end of the succession dispute among his sons, the property was purchased by the Péchy family. They subsequently built a castle in the northern part of the village, surrounded by a spacious park. With estates throughout the entire Someș area, as well as in Budapest and London, the Péchy family would move to Țicău to spend the summer and autumn here.
The Péchy Castle in Țicău, stolen brick by brick in 2010!
When the Communists came to power, the local agricultural cooperative converted the castle’s available land into farmland. After the Revolution, the building rapidly deteriorated, and the final blow came in 2010, when the indifference of the villagers, but especially of the local authorities, led to the complete devastation of the Péchy Castle in Țicău.
In fact, the already-ruined building was dismantled brick by brick, villagers recall, and the pieces of history were reportedly hauled away by carts! Only the gate has remained relatively intact, now embarrassingly adorned with a broken sign meant to indicate the private property status of the „building.” It seems there was once a restitution claim by the Péchy family’s descendants, but the exact details of the story have long since been lost.
With absolutely no chance of the castle’s reconstruction, the only remaining action is to preserve the wall fragment and the gate standing by the road, possibly with an informational plaque — a sort of consolation memento that here once stood the charming Péchy Castle in Țicău…