Festetics Castle (Dég)
| Festetics Castle | |
|---|---|
_2.jpg) Festetics Castle |
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| Data | |
| place | Dég |
| builder | Mihály Pollack |
| Client | Antal Festetics |
| Architectural style | classicism |
| Construction year | 1810-1815 |
| Coordinates | 46 ° 52 '27.8 " N , 18 ° 26' 2.8" E |
| particularities | |
| Large landscaped garden in English style around an S-shaped lake, on one of whose islands the "Dutch House" is located. | |
The Festetics Castle in the village of Dég ( Hungary ) is the only classical castle in Fejér County and surrounded by the greatest English landscape garden in the country.
history
The castle was built by Antal Festetics between 1810 and 1815 during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . The architectural design came from Mihály Pollack , an important exponent of Austro-Hungarian neoclassicism .
The building has some unusual architectural features, such as: B. an oval ballroom, which is not located in the center of the middle part, but in one of the corners, and an arched ramp that leads to the main entrance of the castle.
The castle is surrounded by a 300 ha landscaped garden, one of the largest in Central Europe. This was created together with the castle and is grouped around a serpentine lake.
The castle is considered the secret center of Hungarian Freemasonry , as the archives of the Hungarian Freemasons have been kept there for more than a century, and the builder Antal Festetics himself was a Freemason.
In the 1920s, Sándor Festetics rebuilt the castle and provided it with the interior decoration that is still present today.
The Festetics family left the palace in 1944. During the Second World War it was used as a German military hospital. The entire interior was lost until the end of the war.
After 1945 the castle came into state ownership and housed a children's home until 1996.
description
The free-standing, U-shaped building is oriented with its front to the northwest, the garden front faces to the southeast. The north-western courtyard facade is divided into 4 + 3 + 4 (without wings). In the middle there is a tympanum above the entrance , which rests on two pillars and two Doric columns. There are no stairs leading up to the entrance, but a gravel path, so directly accessible for riders and horse-drawn carriages. The side facades are divided into 3+ (6 + 1) and (1 + 6) +3, the ends of the two wings are decorated with a bezel in the shape of a head with rays of the sun.
In the middle of the south-eastern garden facade with a 3 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 3 structure is a portico supported by six Doric columns. This facade is reminiscent of the Hungarian National Museum because the architect of both buildings was the same. Instead of a flight of stairs, a gravel ramp leads up from the garden to the portico.
Castle Park
historical development
At the confluence of three streams, the large English-style landscape garden was laid out between 1813 and 1820. To emphasize the newly built castle, the street was specially relocated so that the castle portico was visible from afar. The composition of the park offered many views of the castle. A large kitchen garden including an orangery extended towards the settlement.
The central element of the park is the serpentine lake, which is fed by the Bozót stream. An elaborate pump and lock system was built for this purpose. The "Dutch House" was built on one of the artificial islands. Contemporaries at that time described the lake in the castle park as "incomparable".
As part of a three-stage, from the Hungarian state and v. a. The park and lake were renovated as part of a project funded by the European Union. By the summer of 2014, a third of the 1.8 km long central lake opposite the castle was cleared of approx. 40,000 m³ of mud, a wooden bridge to the "Dutch house" was built, many new plantings were made and the old trees were recorded, and historical sidewalks were restored. Then the rest of the serpentine-shaped lake was cleared of sludge, several bridges were built, an additional lake was created around the burial site and the construction of a children's playground began.
Dutch house
Pál Festetics built the "Dutch House" in 1891 on the park island opposite the castle on the site of an earlier building. The feature of the building is the division into a two-storey main part and a single-storey extension perpendicular to it. The red brick house in Dutch style is a real specialty in Hungary.
There used to be a cowshed on the ground floor and an apartment on the upper floor for the lung patient Andor Festetics: the ammonia-containing air and the freshly milked milk in the barn were considered beneficial.
Originally, the island could only be reached by cable boat from the castle side. Today there is a wooden bridge painted white.
Roman fountain
To the north of the castle is the restored “Roman Fountain”. This consists of a simulated ruin wall, into which a concave oval wall is worked in the middle. Two Doric columns carry a narrow cornice over into an oval water basin. The water outlet on the back wall in the shape of a lion's head complements this ensemble. In a historical photo from the 1930s, which is shown on a display board, wooden benches can be seen in the open space that still exists today; the fountain was then surrounded by mallow bushes.
Fallen memorial
On the north-western side of the castle there is a memorial to the fallen: on a flat hill stands a stone table, on the front of which two stone coats of arms line a central cross; the inscription refers to the year 1945 and fallen soldiers of the I. Panzer Corps. The elevation is fenced in at the front and sides by stone bollards with large chains, and a three-step staircase leads to the stone table. A commemorative plaque on the lawn of the hill is dedicated to "the fallen of all divisions" and bears the year 1939, another plaque refers to the fallen of III. Panzer Corps , namely the 11th division "Nordland" and the 23rd division "Nederland" .
The commemorative events held at this point caused a sensation because of the participation of the Hungarian National Front (Magyar Nemzeti Arcvonal, MNA) .
Others
There is an information board on the M7 motorway (Letenye-Budapest) that indicates the castle in Dég.
The castle (Hunyadi János u. 11, 8135 Dég) is currently being renovated (as of August 2019) and cannot be visited; however, the castle park is accessible during opening hours for an admission fee.
In 2017 some scenes from Red Sparrow were filmed in the castle.
Individual evidence
- ↑ A "szabadkőműves palota": Dég, Festetics-kastély
- ↑ http://www.nemzetimuemlek.hu/degkeoppalyazat/
- ↑ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deg_castle-park_info-english.jpg
- ↑ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deg_castle-park_war-memorial.jpg
- ↑ https://pusztaranger.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/alljahrlicher-neonazi-aufmarsch-bei-denkmal-der-waffen-ss-in-deg/
