Gad (Gád, Gad) – Timiș County
I am driving along a dirt road across the Banat plain, while the radio waves carry Serbian music. I cover a few kilometers through the dust of the fields stretching between Giera, the village I set out from, and Gad, the settlement I am heading toward. At the entrance to the village, a „collection” of classic Mercedes cars awaits me, and just a few meters later I stop in front of my final destination: the Gudenus Mansion in Gad. An isolated place on the banks of the Timiș River — desolate, yet rich in legends.
The Gudenus Mansion in Gad, built in the 19th century
Gad, Ghilad commune, Timiș County. A village first mentioned in documents as early as 1332, yet today home to just over 100 inhabitants. Asphalt is missing from the streets lined with abandoned houses. Rising among them are the ruins of a manor hidden from the world by dense vegetation — the Gudenus Mansion. Built in Baroque style, the mansion was erected by the Fodor family in the first half of the 19th century. The majestic, single-wing building once featured both a basement and an upper floor.
After the renowned Csávossy de Bobda family purchased the estates of the Kászonyi, Kukovics, Pálffy, Nagy, and Fodor families, and after Csávossy Anna Sarolta, daughter of Baron Csávossy Ignácz, married Baron Gudenus Húgó Ferencz Xavér, the mansion passed into the ownership of the Gudenus family. Béla and Hugó, two of the barons’ sons, would go on to become the wealthiest landowners in the area. The name of the former is also linked to the Gudenus Palace in Timișoara, in the Iosefin district.
The Gudenus Mansion in Gad — school, town hall, then ruin
Following the disappearance of the Gudenus barons, the mansion housed the local primary school and cultural center. After the communists came to power, the ground floor served for a time as the town hall, according to an article published on June 5, 1948, in the Timișoara daily Szabad Szó. In the same place, journalist Horváth Lukács wrote the following: „On the façade, among the numerous decorations, four lion heads can be observed, serving as a warning that not just anyone may enter the park and the castle. The peasants, however, do not even notice this outdated detail. […] The spacious hall upstairs, which a few decades ago was the stage for the parades of the region’s magnates, is now the site of public gatherings.”
Valuable objects disappeared in the years that followed, and significant architectural elements were destroyed. Or, as the journalist cited above — faithfully adhering to the narrative imposed by the regime — put it, „the working people took possession of goods that were already theirs: the estates and castles of the former landlords, for which they themselves had labored anyway.” Once surrounded by a park with centuries-old trees, today only the neglected trees remain, and of the Gudenus Mansion all that can be seen is a ruin „suffocated” by ivy. Although it is listed as a historical monument of national interest and is owned by the local authorities, its chances of salvation are minimal in the absence of genuine interest.
Though ruined, the Gudenus Mansion in Gad remains enveloped in legends. Treasure hunters have appeared in Gad, hoping to find the gold allegedly buried by the barons in the mansion’s courtyard. Another myth points to the existence of a supposed secret tunnel running beneath the building. It is also said that the basement once served as a dungeon. Unfortunately, the only certainty is that the true treasure — the Gudenus Mansion itself — is fading away with each passing day…