Hungary's spotlight - The Royal Palace of Godollo
posted on 30th of september, 2010
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Dear Friends, please welcome in a small but wonderful palace of Hungary! As I promised before, our next guided tour leads us to a town near Budapest...let's tour the renovated baroque wings of Royal Palace of Godollo!
The cosy castle is one of the most important, largest monuments of Hungarian Palace architecture. Its builder, Count Antal Grassalkovich I (1694-1771) was a typical figure of the regrouping Hungarian aristocracy of the 18th century. He was a Royal Septemvir, president of the Hungarian Chamber, and confidant of Empress Maria Theresa (1740-1780). The construction began around 1733, under the direction of András Mayerhoffer (1690-1771) a Salzburg builder.
The Palace has a double U shape, and is surrounded by an enormous park. The building underwent several enlargements and modifications during the 18th century, its present shape was established in the time of the third generation of the Grassalkovich family. By then the building had 8 wings, and - besides the residential part - it contained a church, a theatre, a riding-hall, a hothouse, a greenhouse for flowers and an orangery.
After the male side of the Grassalkovich family died out in 1841, the castle had several owners, and in 1867 it was bought for the Crown. It was Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898) who specially loved staying in Gödöllő, where the Hungarian personnel and neighbourhood of the Palace always warmly welcomed her. Following her tragic death, a memorial park adjoining the upper-garden was built.
Between the two world wars the Palace served as the residence for Regent Miklós Horthy. No significant building took place during this period, apart from an air-raid shelter in the southern front garden. After 1945 the Palace, like many other buildings in Hungary, fell into decay.
Soviet and Hungarian troops used the building, some of the beautifully decorated rooms were used for an Old People's Home, and the park was divided into smaller plots of land.
The protection of building as a historical monument started in 1981, when the National Board for Monuments launched its Palace project. The most important tasks of preservation began in 1986 and were completed in the end of 1991, but reconstruction is continuing with Rudolf and Gisella wings, English Park, ruined stables and riding-hall.
The Royal Palace of Godollo, one of the most attractive tourist sights of Hungary is visited by more than 200 thousand people a year. The number of foreign visitors increases continuously; one in four comes from Europe, and more and more people come from more distant corners of the world.
The building consists of eight 2-storey wings; the central part was restored between 1996 and 2000. The Baroque Theatre is to be finished in 2003.
More information can be found here.
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Tags: hungary photo promotion tourist travel
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Comments (9)
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Thanks for seeing and reading :)
- posted by
Aginger
on October 04, 2010 |
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Interesting photos.
- posted by
Onime
on October 03, 2010 |
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Now that's the tour visit I'm waiting for! Love your interesting blogs about new places! Great shots ;)
- posted by
Mani33
on October 01, 2010 |
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What a great place! I would love to visit it. Great photos! Thanks for sharing.
- posted by
Mariaam
on October 01, 2010 |
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Thank you :)
- posted by
Aginger
on October 01, 2010 |
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Your images are great.... Congratulations....
- posted by
Egomezta
on September 30, 2010 |
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Great photos, I hope one day visit in person! I love travel!
- posted by
Laurasinelle
on September 30, 2010 |
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Great photos! It makes me feel like I was visiting the palace.
- posted by
smartview27
on September 30, 2010 |
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Interesting, and nice images. :)
- posted by
Scottysally2
on September 30, 2010 |
Comments (9) |
This article has been read 589 times. 2 readers have found this article useful.
Photo credits: Aginger, Anasztázia Batta, Aginger, Aginger, Aginger, Aginger, Aginger, Aginger. |
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Aginger
confidential info
>I've started photographing a few years ago with a compact cam. I liked it but I interested more for it, so I changed to a bridge cam to learn basic settings and rudiments. In 2008 november I decided to buy a DSLR cam, and I chose a Pentax k10d. Now I'm ready to learn to use and enjoy it.
I rarely use hard Photoshop effects, I'd better see the real world in my photos.
My main interests are travelling and towns - and nature, of course. I think I'm good at nightscenes - however, I don't like to take photos about people, so my pics sometimes seems a little static - mainly for Stock photographing, but I don't give up. :)
Lots of my photos are based on Raw files so if you need it just contact me by adding a comment on the image and I will upload it.
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Email us | Phone: +1 615-771-5611
