Festetics Palace

The first baroque style bulding that I would like to write about is the Festetics Palace in Keszthely. The reason of this is that I live in Keszthely, therefore I see it almost every day and consider it extremely beautiful. The bulding itself has a long history as well as the garden and the people who lived here or even just visited it were very influential in their time.

Aristocratic palaces had many functions and the conceptions of the homes had changed a lot over the centuries. Many changes happened in terms of the decorations and also in the taste of the residents. In the baroque, palaces represented fortune, they expressed the well-being of the family. They primarily functioned for living purposes, they had to be comfortable, thus there was a functional organization of the rooms. However, it can be seen that in the huge palaces there were mostly places for social events, such as the dining halls, concert halls and halls for purposes of conversations. On the whole, they were convenient, as well as representative. Since the larger countryhouses were highly glorious, to make the constructions possible the owner had to possess a large land, therefore mostly the aristocracy could afford the constructions of such palaces. At his time the catholic nobles got enormous territories for their loyalty.  They were usually superior to other classes in the society and consisted of a very small circle of families. As a fact, in Hungary there were just a few families in that position.

                                                                    Concert hall

One of them was the Festetics family. Pál Festetics III was the member of the Parliament, was assigned a position in the Vienna Central Court, furthermore, he became a confidant of Maria Theresia. In 1772 the Queen elevated him to the dignity of count. His son György spent his childhood in Keszthely which means that Hungarian became his mother tongue, which was very rare among the upper classes this time. He was a student at the Theresianum in Vienna. Besides, he founded Europe’s first agricultural college the Georgikon in 1797 and organized the first Helikon festives which is a remarkable festival also nowadays. His great-granson’s Tasziló II wife was Lady Mary Victoria Douglas Hamilton whose first husband was Prince Albert of Monaco, which means that the family became connected to western royal families and the castle got many furnitures from there as a consequence.

The palace reached its present size in 1887. Kristóf Festetics began the constructions in 1745 on the place of the ruined Pethö fortress. In front of the palace was standing the church Saint Marton which was completely demolished in 1880. Additionally, there were several reconstruction plans made by Kristóf Höfstadter in 1755. This small palace was a one-storeyed U-shaped building with 34 rooms. It was followed by a major reconstruction between 1769 and 1770 by Pál Festetics who extended the wings to their present size. The next significant reconstruction was from 1792 to 1800 by György Festetics who added the north wing and the U- shape of the south-wing was further extended. In 1883 Tasziló II took over the estate and he made many changes on the palace. The north-wing was demolished, the internal countryard doubled in size, a new wing was built connected to the old one and they changed all the gates to new baroque style gates. 

                                                               The baroque style gate

                                                                    György Festetics


This palace can be counted among the first 18-19. century aristocratic palaces. There are 101 rooms in it.  It has its concert hall as the centre of the building which served originally as a dining hall. There are plenty of rooms in each with several purposes such as working, salons for the reception of the guests, bedrooms, dining rooms, concert halls. However, they didn’t have bathrooms, because the aristocracy didn’t really pay attention to hygiene. They heated the palaces with beautiful fireplaces and also stoves, the central heating was just later available. As well as in the exterior, we can see the impact of the West also in the interior and in the furnishing.Most of the furnitures were come from or just displayed resemblance to the west, mainly to the furnitures of the French palaces. The most important furnitures in the palaces were tables, chairs, commodes, beds, sofas and writing desks which was the most common furniture among them. There were beautiful crystal chandeliers in not just the concert halls but also in other rooms with less significance. Wall decors were mirrors, paintings or paintings depicting biblical scenes. The dominant colors are the white and the stucco works are worth admiring. On the walls we can see mirrors that were made in Italy which were the best in this era. The chapel in the palace is also outstanding with its marble wall lining.
Here we can see the alabaster statue of Saint Sophie. It was primarily maintained for family using.

                                                                    One of the many rooms

                                                  

                                                                          Chapel

An outstanding locality that is worth mentioning is the library which was the idea of György Festetics. As a fact, it is the most valuable room of the palace. Many members of the Festetics family were enthusiastic collectors of books and newspapers as well, this way they collected a huge number of books. The room was built between 1799 and 1801 made by oak tree and it was planned by a master cabinet-maker János Kerbl. The books were classified such as for instance Agricultural Literature and History, additionally they were mostly used for research purposes. 

                                                                         Library

Personally, my favourite place in the palace is the staircase with oak panelling where can be found some portrays of the members of the Festetics family.

                                                          Staircase with oak panelling

The park of the palace was designed to resemble the gardens of the French and English palaces. It was constructed to be suited for the architectural principles. There are wonderful lakes, artificial waterfalls, flowerbeds and statues. It was also in favor of different kinds of sport activities such as horse riding. 

                                                              The park with the lake

The castle is visited by hundreds of tourists every year. There are more exhibitions besides the castle such as the palm house, the coach and hunting exhibition and there are many interesting programs as well. During summers they are usually organized theatre performances with Hungarian actors and actresses. These performances in the evening make the atmosphere here really special.  It is opened in the whole year for tourists from all around the world.



Sources: 

Ferenc Batári, Dr. Károly Sági: Festetics Castle

                Sági Károly, Péczely Piroska, Koppány Tibor: Keszthely(1962)

                Zsuzsa Sidó: The Symbolic Role of Hungarian Noble Architecture in the Late 19th (2004)