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From the land of the dragons, we can go in the direction of tory can be visited. Th e Károlyi family is one of the oldest

the border, forgetting the county borders for a short time, noble Hungarian families; their family history is about a
since Vállaj, a village near the border, and located only a few thousand years old and is intertwined with the arrival of
kilometres from Nyírbátor in the southern direction, used the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. Th eir descen-

to be an estate of the Gut-Keled clan. Thanks to Károlyi, dants live their daily lives all over the world, but some of

the new owner in the 1700s, German settlers and Swabian them find their final resting place in Căpleni, in the family

farmers lived here. Some houses still have the fancy barns mausoleum dreamt up by Sándor Károlyi.

erected by the wealthy farmers after the fire of 1903. Th ese The villages of Berea (Bere) and the adjacent Ciumești

barns were built of brick, and their plaster ornaments bear (Csomaköz), the two small villages in the Partium with
witness to the influence of eclecticism. one saved medieval church and one renovated medieval

Carei (Nagykároly) is less than 10 km from here. Th e town church, are real curiosities.
that belongs to Romania today is a famous town of the Par-
tium, which still preserves its Hungarian memories. Th e
imposing Károlyi Castle with its beautiful English gar-
den, reminiscent of romantic old castles of knights, and its
renovated ceremonial halls and rich collections, is the must-
see attraction of the region.

In Căpleni (Kaplony) near Carei, on the ancient estate of
the Károlyi family, the crypt of this family with a long his-

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