Located: Kastély utca 1, Keszthely, Zala county Map
Constructed: 1745 by Kristóf Festetics
Tel. 83 312 190
Open: 9am- 6pm Jul- Aug
9am- 5pm Tue- Sun Sep- Jun
Festetics Palace is situated in a town of Keszthely, Zala county in Hungary. Festetics Palace construction began in 1745 by the orders of Kristóf Festetics. György Festetics constructed a library wing between 1799 and 1801. Festetics Palace is famous for one of the largest libraries that holds over 100,000 books and documents. In the 1880's it was reconstructed in a neo- Baroque architectural style under supervision of architect Viktor Rumpelmayer and after his death in 1885 by Gusztáv Haas and Miksa Paschkisch. Festetics Palace consists of two wings and over 100 rooms. In was turned into a museum in 1974.
At the beginning of the 18th century,
Keszthely was owned by several landlords. Kristóf Festetics bought
his parts from the biggest owner, János Pethő, in 1739. The
construction of the Baroque castle began in the middle of the 18th
century and was remodeled several times during this century. Between
1883 and 1987 it was extended with a neo-baroque tower and new parts
of the building. As a result, the main façade of the U-shaped (cour
d'honneur arrangement) single-storey castle, divided by middle and
side rhizalites, lost its former symmetry. The castle consists of
101 rooms. In front of the entrance to the castle is the statue of
the most famous member of the family, Count György Festetics, who
considered culture to be of paramount importance. The castle shows
how the lords lived in the 18th and 19th centuries through 20 halls.
Operetta concerts are held every week in the Mirror Hall.
World War II did not wreak havoc in the city, the Festetics Castle
building, part of its furniture and library remained intact. The
escape of the library is also due to the fact that, to prevent
looting, the library wing was walled up along with the fixtures
stored there. The more valuable copies of the library's holdings
were later transported to Budapest and merged into the collection of
the National Széchényi Library, and then replaced with other
volumes. Much of the castle's furnishings were scattered and
emigrated during and after the war. Smaller furnishings and
ornaments have fallen out of the castle in or after the chaos of the
wartime under unclear conditions. The furniture, which fled to the
Hévíz spa hospital and was damaged there, was later transported to
Budapest, to the Museum of Applied Arts for restoration. Other
high-quality furniture, considered endangered, was also transported
to Budapest from the castle after the war, treating it as "abandoned
goods" in the terminology of the time. Thus, the most significant of
the castle's furnishings, especially in the XVIII. century French
rococo and classicist furniture can still be found in the Museum of
Applied Arts, in the warehouse or in the exhibition space of the
Museum in Nagytétény Castle. It is reassuring that during his visit
to Keszthely on 16 April 2013, Secretary of State János Lázár, Prime
Minister, expressed in an oral statement the government's commitment
and intention to develop equipment from the Festetics Castle in the
near future. , thus enriching and making more authentic the most
visited castle museum in the country. The gradual handover of these
artefacts began in 2014 and continued in 2015 and then in 2016. Also
from the warehouse of the Museum of Applied Arts and the furniture
exhibition at the Nagytétény Castle Museum, several salon furniture,
clearly of Festetics origin (and presumably Hamilton origin), were
returned to the castle, where they were integrated into the
gradually renewing aristocratic interior design exhibition.
The handover of other rare and highly delicate artificial furniture
is still pending, but with future developments there may be hope for
further exhibition expansion and for the enrichment and enhancement
of the interiors. To this end, the Castle Museum will continue to
pay special attention to and thank the public and art collectors for
their helpful information and offers about the appearance, rental or
sale of artefacts of presumably Festetics origin to which they have
become aware or are in their possession.
On June 18, 2015, after a long preparation, the
partial reconstruction of the former large women's salon of
Festetics Castle was handed over, which was the most spectacular
development to date during the nearly 40-year existence of the
interior exhibition. The pure XVI. The Biedermeier furniture of the
Louis-style room, which did not fit in style and may have been
arranged until then, was then replaced by tender sources and private
collectors in a French, 16th-century French, XVI. Louis-style,
11-piece, gilded living room upholstered with woven fabrics, which
was accompanied by furniture from the Museum of Applied Arts and
other freshly restored Festetics-origin furniture. The salon set was
reported in detail in the article of magyarmuzeumok.hu dated
25.06.2015. The reconstruction was later carried out by a French
Aubusson technique, III. Napoleon-style woven rugs as well as gilded
bronze ornaments: clocks, candelabra, fireboxes and other living
room furniture were also added. With all this, the furnishings of
the former princess's salon have been enriched in a much closer way
to its original condition, creating such a uniform standard and
timeless atmosphere that it is currently unique in Hungarian castle
museums, measurable only for Western samples. Perspective plans also
include reconstructing the salon’s textile wallpaper and changing
the layout of the furniture so that by changing the visitor route,
the salon set, along with the carpet filling the entire width of the
salon, could be placed symmetrically in the center of the room
instead of the current one-sided placement. The full history and
transformations of the salon over time have been reported during
2016 in a thematic series of articles on the castle museum website,
also illustrated with archive images.
On December 16, 2015,
the historical reconstruction of the park of Festetics Castle was
handed over. As part of the investment, the park was restored in
Victorian style according to the original 19th-century Milner plans.
The park was reconstructed from more than 243 million forints and
renovated, including the Princess Chamber Garden, the lake and
bridge, the fountains, and the parterre.
On April 29, 2015,
the 2 billion forint-renovated Amazon House, separate from the
castle, was handed over, with an aristocratic travel-themed
exhibition, a palm house, an improved roof and some renovated rooms
in the castle, including a new, modern exhibition hall. an
exhibition on the Festetics family, a new ticket office and a museum
shop. However, much of the castle museum, both the halls in the
north wing and the 40-year-old aristocratic lifestyle interior
exhibition, have been left unchanged by the 2 billion project, so a
complete reconstruction of them is yet to come. At the same time,
during the renovation period, more than ten pieces of equipment and
works of art that had once been in the aristocratic castle were
returned to Keszthely. Thanks to the art purchase program launched
on the initiative of the Minister leading the Prime Minister's
Office, János Lázár, the exhibition space also increased by almost
10 million forints with three works of art. At the opening, six
gilded silver glasses from 1817, with the coat of arms of the
Festetics family on them, were bought by the Hungarian state at an
auction in Vienna. The carved marble statue of Countess Mary
Victoria Hamilton, who lived in the castle, was bought back at
auction in Budapest, and the neo-rococo salon set from the first
half of the 19th century, similar to the former castle furnishings,
was also owned by the state at an auction in Budapest.
There
are plans to renovate and expand the hunting museum in the back
tract of the castle park, and to eliminate the road dividing the
park since the 1980s with the involvement of the municipality.
Another basic need would be the complete mechanical renovation of
the castle, which was left out of the previous developments, mainly
concerning the reconstruction of other buildings.
Thanks to
the function room of the Amazon House, the castle's function halls,
which have so far functioned as function rooms but are partially
closed to the public or presented in their non-original function,
could be freed up and opened up as another worthy exhibition venue.
Thus, in the future it would be possible to reconstruct and more
authentically present the former large dining room used as a concert
venue, called a mirror room, in its original dining room function,
for which the hall's features, size and white-gold neo-rococo
decoration are ideal.
The most significant figure in Keszthely – and also the Festetics
family – is György Festetics (1755–1819), who lived in Keszthely from
1791. Between 1799 and 1801, he built a library wing at the castle,
supported the publication of numerous magazines and works of fiction.
From 1817, he organized the Helikon celebrations twice a year, where he
hosted the most famous poets and writers of Transdanubia. Hence the
saying from the mouth of Dániel Berzsenyi, which calls Keszthely a
"little Hungarian Weimar".
The Helikon library is approx. Its
collection of 80,000 volumes was created by the Festetics family. Among
the books are several old encyclopedias and old prints. This is Europe's
largest intact nobleman's library. The carved oak furniture of the
famous great hall of the library was made by carpenter János Kerbl from
Keszthely.
Since 2005, the 500-year-old cellar system of the castle has housed the Balatoni Borok Háza, which offers guided tours combined with wine tasting.
The Festetics castle, which also includes the Helikon library, as the fourth largest castle in the country, welcomes visitors with significant exhibitions and prestigious music events after its complete renovation. After the renovation, a permanent hunting museum opened its doors in the new museum building. In the attic of the new building, one of Europe's largest field tables can be seen at the historical model railway exhibition.
In Hungary, on March 27, 1992, a HUF 15 stamp depicting the castle was issued. (Designed by József Vertel.)
The 42-hectare park is a nature reserve. There are several special types of wood in it. The Chinese fern pines were planted during the time of György Festetics. The oldest tree is a 400-year-old pedunculated oak (Quercus robur).
Hungary's largest preserved collection of carriages can be found in the former riding stables in the castle park. The exhibition consists of several carriages and carriages that came from the famous carriage factory of Fülöp Kölber in Budapest.