What is a Hungarian mansion worth if it is a museum?
Reconstruction of former estate centres – an impossible task
MúzeumCafé 19.
The social importance of the Hungarian nobility is indicated by a figure which is almost incredible at first sight. A benchmark estimate reveals that at present there are about 3,000 stately homes in Hungary and in addition some 1000 are known to have been destroyed. The future of the majority of those still existing is almost hopeless and it is even a big question whether they would be able to defy the times as museums or galleries. After all, the situation of the already existing mansion museums is not easy. They face huge building maintenance costs as well as the public’s increasing expectations in a changing museum environment, while finances provided by the state are being reduced year by year. In Europe descendants of aristocratic families have often decided to turn their centuries-old historic properties into museums, and thus an ancient castle or palace as an independently managed centre can serve cultural and educational purposes. That is what the widow of Pál Esterházy, Melinda Ottrubay, who emigrated to Switzerland after being imprisoned, did when she set up a foundation to manage the family’s former estate in Burgenland, thoroughly upsetting the family’s line of inheritance, although her successor, Antal Prince Esterházy XIII (who has a suite in Fertőd and an apartment both in Germany and Budapest) has a share from one of Europe’s largest private estates as annuity. The result is that visitors to Eisenstadt and Forchtenstein can appreciate the former life of the aristocratic family and their amazing wealth. There is a long list of similar examples, from the fashionable location of stars’ weddings, namely the castle of the Odescalchi princes in Bracciano, to Scottish castles and the castle of Eltz in Germany, where several generations lived (more than a hundred family members in some periods). Today their descendants operate the museum together. Hungary has no similar stately homes-cum-museums, even less so estates still in operation, but it has mansions which host exhibitions. There is a wide range from residences of nobility with a single memorial room, for example the Bezerédj Mansion in Ménfőcsanak, to a small number of traditional palace museums, such as the Esterházy Palace in Fertőd-Eszterháza, the Grassalkovich Palace in Gödöllő and the Festetics Palace in Keszthely. Defining a palace museum is not easy since what is meant by a palace is not absolutely clear, either for the general public or in the press. Magnificent urban mansions, villas in spa centres and castles are referred to as palaces, and so are stately homes which were traditionally, often for centuries owned by members of the aristocracy with the envied titles of baron, count or (more rarely) prince. Yet the concept of a palace or a mansion always refers to a type of building constructed from the 18th century onwards. The study by Gudenus and Szentirmay about the post-1945 fate of the Hungarian aristocracy estimates the number of palaces and mansions at 1500-2000. According to Hungarian Palace Encyclopedia, Hungary has 3,000 palaces and mansions and about a thousand fell victim to the world war and the decades of socialism. It’s a well-known fact that during World War II and soon after all the stately homes in Hungary were plundered. Owners who were deprived of all their wealth and rights often fled at the last minute, leaving behind everything they had. What Prince Pál Esterházy, who owned 315,000 acres in Hungary, did was not exceptional. He was accused of ‘traffic in foreign currency’ and received a prison sentence of 15 years. Disillusioned, he emigrated to Switzerland in 1956. The treasures in the palaces fell prey in many cases first to German and then Soviet troops, while the remaining objects were taken away by the population. Reconstruction of the former estate centres is impossible in Hungary. Palace museums operating in former stately homes can represent what life was like only partially, in terms of both decorations and objects, which have had to be purchased to replace the originals. In Hungary there is only a single known building which remained intact despite the devastations of World War II and the subsequent years – the Blaskovich Mansion in Tápiószele. It’s fortunate that the collection the Blaskovich family of lesser nobility began to compile in the middle of the 19th century was able to survive. Yet the neo-Classical mansion built in 1906 cannot rival the lavish building in Betliar, a jewel of museums in Slovakia, and in the traditional sense of the word it cannot be identified with a palace museum, either. Following the 1920 Trianon Treaty a large number of mansions (the more valuable ones from an art history perspective, as well as regarding historical importance) found themselves outside the borders of Hungary. Today Hungarian palaces and mansions operating as museums rarely stand up to international comparison. This can be clearly seen if the proportions of Prince Eugene of Savoy’s mansions, the Belvedere in Vienna and his Hungarian residence in Ráckeve, are compared. Landed families being deprived of their property continues to be a significant factor behind the deterioration of stately homes across the country. The difficulties for palace museums, such as the burden of renovation, the everyday problems of maintenance and management, the reconstruction and revitalisation of the gardens, as well as replacement of furnishings all relate to the fact that continuity in the history of the buildings was abruptly broken in the 1940s and that severe deterioration has occurred ever since. Kálmán Varga calculates that Hungary has ninety building complexes which deserve the name palace according to the strictest criteria, including their art historical significance. The Hungarian National Monuments Trust, established in 1992 on western patterns, has 42 buildings under its management, including such significant palaces as that at Fertőd-Eszterháza, the L’Huillier-Coburg Palace in Edelény, the Esterházy mansions in Tata, Majk and Csákvár, the Nádasdy Palace in Nádasdladány, the Ráday Palace in Pécel, the Károlyi Palace in Füzérradvány and the Fáy Palace in Fáj. As a result of the trust’s efforts, twenty buildings can now receive visitors, whose number reaches one million annually. Thanks to EU funding, nearly nine billion forints are being spent on the renovation of stately homes in the trust’s care – an unprecedented sum in the institution’s history. As a result of the grants, major changes have taken place with at least four historical building complexes. Eszterháza is being renovated in two stages, involving three and a half billion forints, and reconstruction of the Edelény Palace is underway, costing two and a half billion. The Esterházy Mansion next to the Camaldolese Hermitage in Majk has received financial support and the reconstruction of the Nádasdy Palace in Nádasdladány is nearing completion, thanks to the support of a Norwegian foundation. The wings of one of Hungary’s formerly most neglected stately homes, the Grassalkovich Palace in Gödöllő, which housed Soviet military units and then served as sheltered accommodation, are currently experiencing renovation and rebirth?