In December of this year, the book Storytelling Castles in the Orbit of Vienna reached bookstores. It was produced largely through the use of the photographic archive of the Hungarian Heritage Archives Foundation.
The volume offers an insight into the world of the Hungarian high aristocracy who lived in the vicinity of the former imperial city and owned substantial estates. These families occupied a special place in the history of Hungary. Within their homes, the power of their private wealth created an inimitable, almost inaccessible world. Their castles were designed by the most sought-after architects; the Esterháza residence of Miklós Esterházy “the Magnificent,” despite its smaller scale, was rightly compared to the Palace of Versailles, and the walls of their salons virtually groaned under the weight of artworks. The manor house at Dolná Krupá, owned first by the Brunszvik family and later by the Chotek counts, was a veritable sanctuary of painting, where works by Holbein, Titian, and Rubens adorned everyday life, and in the evenings Ludwig van Beethoven himself sat down at the piano. This book allows us a glimpse into these castles and palaces, into the lives of their inhabitants and their everyday existence—significant even in its seeming insignificance—so that perhaps, in the depths of the “well of the past,” which may not be quite bottomless after all, we might recognize ourselves and our own aspirations.
The proximity of the Hofburg decisively influenced the outlook of the Hungarian aristocracy; the customs of Spanish court etiquette that took root in Vienna became models to be followed even in more distant castles. A special world emerged in which life unfolded according to a liturgical order, and the events of everyday life shone with a festive glow. Gyula Andrássy, the former legendary joint foreign minister of the Monarchy, once reproached his wife for not sitting down to the table in festive attire at their castle in Terebes, and he refused to accept her argument that they were in the countryside. As Renate Wagner-Rieger put it, their life was like a performance without an audience—if we do not count Society itself as such.
“High Society,” with capital letters: the aristocracy, the “first among the first,” felt itself separate not only from society as a whole but even from the wealthy lesser nobility—despite István Werbőczy’s formulation of the centuries-old principle of a single, legally equal nobility. Countess Katalin Andrássy, however, recalled the larger balls as occasions when her countly relatives formed a veritable living phalanx in front of the gentry, lest they dare ask the aristocratic young ladies to dance, whom they seemed to be protecting as future wives. “The others do not count…” went the saying in the Károlyi family.
Through the medium of the castles around Vienna, we can step into this closed world, among its former inhabitants. We can come to know their lives, their fates determined by wealth and social obligations, as well as their ambitions and desires.
Thanks to their upbringing, they recorded almost everything. They kept diaries as a matter of duty, which offered them the opportunity for daily self-reflection. Certain events are known to us from the pens of two or three diarists—and it hardly needs to be said that they considered entirely different things worth recording than their contemporaries did.
Castles do indeed tell stories. Their floor plans and the layout of their rooms reflect the worldview and habits of their owners. For the aristocrat, the noble residence was often the crowning achievement of a lifetime, a true work of creation; not infrequently they came into serious conflict with the architect, who would have preferred not to realize one or two aristocratic ideas during the planning or construction process. Miklós Esterházy “the Magnificent” built his great work, the Esterháza palace complex, almost throughout his entire life, and other aristocrats likewise constantly altered and reshaped their noble residences.
Hospitality, an everyday phenomenon of life, formed the basis of social interaction. In many noble households, the table was laid for several people (in the home of Péter Csernovits of Mácsa, for as many as twenty), even if only the family sat down to dine. Miklós Esterházy “the Magnificent” often dined with noble bodyguards in Vienna, and in István Széchenyi’s diary it is difficult even to follow where, and at which aristocratic household, he happened to be having lunch on a given day. When a sociable person arrived somewhere, it was almost a matter of obligation to make the rounds of noble houses. Jácint Rónay, tutor first to Archduke Rudolf and later to Archduchess Marie Valerie, could not complain enough in his diary about the burden of having to visit all the courtiers living and working around Queen Elisabeth whenever he arrived in Vienna.
The pages of the book introduce us to unique and remarkable lives: Prince László Batthyány-Strattmann, who devoted himself to his patients; Prince Pál Esterházy, who withdrew into the solitude of his salons; the darling of society, Countess Geraldine Pálffy; Archduchess Ferdinand’s wife, Countess Zsófia Chotek; or the book-loving József Esterházy. Many human traits set them apart, yet they were united by a shared fate and by the consciousness of belonging to the high aristocracy.
Many of them expected the aristocracy to elevate and then save Hungary, and later the Monarchy. When Countess Eleonóra Zichy wrote in horror in her diary that nowadays simple commoners were becoming governing politicians, she had no idea that she was witnessing the end of a world. The cataclysm of the Second World War came as a shock to the people of society. Hearing the rumble of Russian tanks, they fled in panic, often leaving everything behind, and few thought that they would never return—back to the castles that had been their homes.
Book details:
| Author: | Podhorányi Zsolt |
| Title: | Mesélő kastélyok Bécs vonzásában |
| Subtitle: | I. A Felvidék nyugati része |
| Publisher: | Cimbora Alapítvány |
| Length: | 340 pages, full color, richly illustrated hardcover volume with dust jacket |
| ISBN: | 978-615-82831-0-6 |
Price: 8,950 HUF. Available in major bookstores.