In Hungary, just as in other countries where the aristocracy once
held sway, those in power invested their wealth in a variety of
different ways. Some spent their money on architectural masterpieces:
palaces and mansions. The presence and power of noblemen were primarily
displayed by their mansions and this drove them to erect impressive
buildings. Many beautiful examples of such homes have survived
across Hungary. This short overview presents three mansions located
near Budapest.
GÖDÖLLŐ
Let's
start with the largest and most famous of all, the Grassalkovich
palace in Gödöllő. It was built in three stages.
The first building was U-shaped and had three one-storied wings.
A square-shaped slender tower stood at the corner, and a projection
was built in the middle part. Colonades ran on the wings on the
façade facing the yard. In the second stage, between 1746
and 1749, the building was expanded to five wings, with a stable
in the new southern wing and a chapel in the northern wing. Towers
were built at the ends of these wings, as well. The top part of
the towers facing the formal courtyard used to be open, but these
were bricked up. In the third stage, which lasted from 1752 to
1759, additional wings were attached stretching towards the back
from the existing five wings, and a complementary farmyard was
established on the southern side. A large system of cellars was
built at that time, too. The arrangement of the building has become
a style in itself in Hungarian Baroque and it was named the Grassalkovich
style.
A typical baroque French garden belonged to the palace. An orange
house, pavilions, hermit's abodes and a shooting lodge were built
in the park.
Legends were told about the magnificence of the interior - especially
worth mentioning are the stateroom and the Maria Theresa room,
the latter built in honour of her visit, and was covered with red
marble.
After the Compromise of 1867, the palace became royal property
and was a favoured residence for the royal family. Queen Elisabeth
spent many months of the year here with her children, and she was
so admired by the locals that the entire village celebrated her
name day. After the disintegration of the Monarchy, and following
World War 2, almost all of the interior decoration was destroyed
or disappeared. After many years of neglect, the renovation of
the palace started in 1986, and since 1996 it has been operating
as a Royal Palace Museum attracting several hundreds of thousand
visitors each year.
RÁCKEVE
Our second tour takes us to the stunningly beautiful palace
of Ráckeve. The palace is single-storied, except for the middle
part, where the octagonal stateroom is located, concave in the
corners and covered with a dome. A hall with three entrances from
the driveway is on the street façade, decorated with sculptures
of Mars and Minerva on the top. The square-shaped yard was built
later, and it is surrounded by side-wings used as outbuildings.
Prince Jenő Savoyai, the hero of the battle of Zenta, which
marked the end of Turkish rule in Hungary, purchased the estate
in Csepel including Ráckeve in 1698, and soon after he started
building a luxurious palace. The architect was Johann Lucas von
Hildebrandt, who had been a student of Italian masters, and this
early work of his represented the first baroque castle in Hungary
that was not meant to function as protection from attackers, but
only a place of relaxation. András Mayerhoffer, the designer
of the palace in Gödöllő, managed the construction
and he made an excellent job in implementing the design that demonstrated
influences of Italian and French masters. Ironically, in the end
Savoyai never stayed in this amazing environment because he was
tied up in other activities.
After the death of the prince, Charles III's widow Elisabeth kept
the building and then her daughter Maria Theresa. In the second
half of the 19th century, the palace was transformed for use for
farming purposes, and this had disastrous effects on the building.
It was eventually renovated in the 1980s, when rooms, a restaurant,
and banquet rooms were established.
FÓT
Finally, let's take a visit to Fót, to the former
estate of one of Hungary's oldest noble families, the Károlyi
family. The story of this mansion is almost as troubled as of its
former owners. A small mansion was built here by the former lesser
nobleman Count György Fekete, a famous lawyer in the 18th
century, which represented the core of the current palace. The
subsequent owner Count István Károlyi expanded the
building first in 1811, then between 1823 and 1827, and in the
end attached side-wings to it in 1832. In the middle of the 19th
century, Miklós Ybl (designer of the Opera House in Budapest)
renovated the building in classicist and romantic style. A 200-acre
landscape garden was completed in 1836.
The Károlyi family had to escape from Hungary during World
War 2. A children's town was established in the nationalised palace
in November 1957, which became one of the largest of its kind in
Europe. It is currently used mainly for cultural events.
RÁCKEVE