Our Heritage – The historical journey of the Bethlen family
The name Bethlen – whether referring to the main Bethlen line or the Keresd branch – has been intertwined with the history of Transylvania for centuries. Yet what few people realise is that this name does not only stand for coats of arms, palaces or princely titles. The story of the Bethlens is not a chronicle of legends born in ornate halls, but of hardworking hands, strong shoulders and steadfast hearts.
On the Keresd estate of the Bethlen family of Bethlen, where the castle walls still speak today, life was far from comfortable or idle. For generations, family members worked the land themselves, managed the estates and accepted the duties that came with their rank. In Transylvania, nobility meant not only privilege, but work and responsibility: one could only be a landowner after proving oneself – by running a profitable estate, holding a community together and setting an example.
This heritage was not a wreath of glory, but a moral compass. And that compass continued to guide us when history took a darker turn.
When the land, the property, the titles – even the very possibility of working – were taken away, my grandparents did not break. Behind the name Bethlen, nothing remained but a love of work, a sense of order, honour and perseverance – the values that are passed down as a true inheritance from generation to generation.
Together with their six children, my grandparents rebuilt their lives from nothing. Without land, without connections, with hardly any opportunities for work. Some carried coal, others worked as day labourers – yet they never complained and never lost their humanity. The past was gone, but their dignity remained.
This sense of dignity is what my father passed on to us as well: that nothing lasts forever except what we build from within ourselves. Not the name, not the rank, but the quality of the human being. Nothing is given automatically; everything must be earned.
For me, the legacy of the Bethlen family is not a list of historical merits, but a living reminder of how to bear both rise and fall with dignity. Tradition is not about copying the trappings of the past, but about passing on a set of values.
The spirit of Bethlen Jewellery springs from this very source. In every piece, the family heritage is present: respect for craftsmanship, the timeless beauty of form and a commitment to creating lasting value – not only for the present, but for generations to come.
Násfa – The betrothal jewel of Prince Gábor Bethlen of Transylvania and Catherine of Brandenburg
The centre of the jewel is dominated by a red-enamelled heart set within a shield-shaped frame of diamonds and emeralds, flanked on either side by a hand, each with a ring on its index finger. Below are a skull, and above an anchor, a cross, a ducal crown and, above all, a pair of wings to either side as the principal symbolic motifs. In addition, an enamelled pair of doves, a snake, arrows, foliage and flowers complete this system of symbols, which is predominantly rooted in biblical imagery. The hands holding the heart and the pair of doves were indispensable motifs on betrothal jewellery of the period and here, too, they clearly define the jewel’s function as a wedding or betrothal piece. Such extensive use of sacred symbols, however, was not typical in the context of marriage and was most likely prompted by the prince’s profound religiosity. On the back plate, assembled from metal sheets, an unusual pseudo-back in the form of an anchor was mounted, pierced and engraved in openwork.
At the 1884 exhibition of goldsmiths’ work, which remains a landmark event in the study of metalwork, five similar jewels were displayed from the collections of Ödön Zichy, Lajos Tisza, Antal Zichy, Manó Andrássy and Ferenc Berényi. This was both the first and the last occasion on which all five pieces could be seen together.
The násfa now kept in the Museum of Applied Arts is identical with the piece exhibited in 1884 by Ödön Zichy (1811–1894). From the collection of his son, Jenő Zichy (1837–1906), it entered the Municipal Gallery in 1906 and then, in 1953, the collection of the Museum.
The catalogue of the 1884 exhibition also records the tradition associated with these jewels: at the wedding of Prince Gábor Bethlen and Catherine of Brandenburg, the prince himself and six pages are said to have worn such betrothal jewels – the pages’ pieces made of silver, the prince’s of gold.
This exceptional piece, now in the Museum of Applied Arts, is made of silver; this explains its sometimes modest technical solutions and somewhat summary execution. At the same time, the large number of gemstones it contains, along with the once splendid enamel decoration and gilding, support the theory that it was created as an “occasional jewel” intended primarily for display. In line with the tradition, researchers believe that our jewel was made as an insignia-type ornament for the 1626 wedding in Kassa (Košice) of Prince Gábor Bethlen of Transylvania and Catherine of Brandenburg – an ephemeral jewel, one of the pieces intended for members of the prince’s close retinue, while the gold versions were reserved for the princely couple.
Two further examples of this jewel in its silver version are known today: one is held by the Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire – Musée du Coeur Boyadjian in Brussels, the other by the Hungarian National Museum.
A gold counterpart of the násfa is preserved in the Grünes Gewölbe collection in Dresden (Inv. No. VIII 288). It may have been worn by Catherine of Brandenburg at the princely wedding in 1626 and taken with her when, after her husband’s death, she left Transylvania in 1631. Another, also gold, piece – perhaps once the matching jewel worn by the groom – was shown under number 13 at the 1884 exhibition of goldsmiths’ work, then in the possession of Count Antal Zichy.
More recent lines of research, however, cast doubt on the seventeenth-century origin of the silver examples. According to this view, the formal and technical features of the pieces show characteristic traits of nineteenth-century historicist jewellery, and the assumption of their authentic early provenance rests only on a tradition of uncertain origin that cannot be substantiated by written sources.
Source (in Hungarian): https://gyujtemeny.imm.hu/gyujtemeny/nasfa-bethlen-gabor-erdelyi-fejedelem-es-brandenburgi-katalin-eljegyzesi-nasfaja/1398?npn=1
