Hadad
Hadad (Hodod, Krieg) Castle is in Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the low hills of the Szilágyság area, next to the Hadad Creek. Near to the village, we can find the remains of the castle on a hill which was first mentioned in 1399. It was built by the brothers of Jakcs Kusalyi György who had received the land in 1383. It was in their hands in 1416 and was mentioned as “Castrum Hadad”.
It was listed as an agricultural town in 1482. When there were no more living members of the family, Lord Báthori István gifted it and its 26 villages to Wesselényi in 1584. The castle was besieged in 1562 and in 1564 then General Balassa placed a German garrison of the Habsburg king there in 1600.
The Battle of Vadkerti was in 1562 where Zay Ferenc and Menyhárt Balassa won a victory for the Habsburg King against the Transylvanians led by Némethi. Némethi was attacking too early and the soldiers of Balassa could defeat the Transylvanian units one by one.
King János Zsigmond took the place back in 1564 with his 12,000 troops so it could remain the property of the Transylvanian Principality. According to an inventory from 1703, the castle used to have double walls and a system of moats with wood bridges. The inner defensive circle was made up of the outer walls of the central buildings which were several stories high.
During the War of Independence of Prince Rákóczi Ferenc II, the castle was successfully defended by the wife of Wesselényi Pál, a lady called Béldi Zsuzsanna against the Germans. Yet, another Hungarian nobleman, Csáky István surrendered it to the Imperials in 1710 and a German garrison was put there.
The castle was a useless ruin at the end of the 18th century and its stones were carried away by the locals. The Wesselényi Palace was partly built from its stone in 1761 by Josef Leder. Some say the original place of the castle had been the Wesselényi Palace while others think it was on a nearby hilltop to the west. Hadad is also famous for its Evangelic church built in the 15th century in Gothic style.
Here is a video about the village in the Hungarian language with Romanian subtitles, enjoy the aerial pictures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mltwgFw3FDA
