Abraham (formerly Szentábrahám; today Abrahám, Slovakia) is a small settlement situated south of Trnava. In the immediate vicinity of the village, which today has a population of only 1,094 inhabitants, an encroaching wilderness threatens to reclaim the landscape. It is a fairy-tale forest where the dense canopy of ancient trees blocks out the sunlight. One need not be a specialist to recognize that remarkable cedars and conifers thrive here amidst the continental vegetation.
We find ourselves in what was once a landscaped English park—today a “castle forest”—originally conceived by landscape architects as an organic extension of the residence itself. In aristocratic culture, the country house and its designed natural environment formed an inseparable whole. The former territories of historic Hungary are also the homeland of abandoned English parks. The groves surrounding the more than three thousand noble residences once estimated[1] to have existed across the country often originated from unified architectural and landscape designs created simultaneously with the manor house or castle. Today, many have merged with the surrounding woodland. Countless botanical treasures have already vanished in their unequal struggle against advancing native vegetation, both within and beyond Hungary’s present borders.
At Ábrahám, the neglected park is accompanied by an equally unfortunate residence. Hidden in the depths of the wilderness, the ruins of the former Esterházy residence are slowly collapsing into the earth, their decaying walls disfigured by countless graffiti. Where members of the comital household once enjoyed what was then considered an elite delicacy—ice cream—, the outcasts of society now seek temporary refuge. Today, only the semicircular wall of the salon overlooking the park and the scale of the remaining ruins hint that this was once a noble residence.
An Aristocrat Who Was Both Painter and Hunter
Two aristocratic residences once stood on the outskirts of Abraham. Both were commissioned by Count Károly István Esterházy of Galánta (1847–1919), member of the House of Magnates, one of the most remarkable personalities of the Cseklész branch of the Esterházy family, a lineage notable for its many eccentric figures.
His life was rich in adventure, perhaps best illustrated by the story of his second marriage. During one of his African safaris, a boat capsized on the Nile and a noblewoman fell into the water. Ignoring the dangers of the ominous river, the count threw himself into the waves and rescued the struggling lady. Experienced readers may already anticipate the conclusion: the reward for this act of heroism was a marriage proposal accepted at the altar and a happy union blessed with children.[2] His second wife was Mary Eveline Hamilton-Charters (1859–1932), and their splendid wedding was celebrated on 15 November 1882 in Ipswich,[3] England, and at Stoke Park, the bride’s family estate.[4] In November 1907 Abraham hosted another grand celebration when the comital couple commemorated their silver wedding anniversary in the presence of numerous representatives of the British aristocracy.[5] Amid the lavishly set tables, however, little mention was likely made of the serious family conflict that overshadowed the life of the Esterházy family.
Károly Esterházy was not known solely for his daring hunting exploits. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he showed little interest in public affairs and was captivated instead by the world of the arts. The most important room in his residence was his studio. Having studied painting, he established a studio in Baden and enthusiastically embraced artistic innovation, including the emerging Secession movement. It was there that he met his first wife, Paula Stauber, with whom he lived until her death in 1881.[6]
Beside his smaller hunting lodge, built in 1883, he envisioned an extraordinary new residence inspired by Viennese Secession architecture. The building was designed by Josef Urban, one of the leading masters of the style. Urban not only prepared the architectural plans but also conceived the interior furnishings, creating an exceptionally unified work of art between 1899 and 1900.[7] It is entirely possible that he was forced to confront every architect’s nightmare: the constantly evolving ideas of an enthusiastic patron. The floral wall decorations, plant-inspired ornamentation, and the frequently dominant pale-green colour palette undoubtedly reflected the personal taste of Count Károly. Such a private Secession-style castle was a rarity within Hungarian historicist castle architecture, though not without precedent. Another famous example, the Fernbach Castle at Babapuszta (Aleksa Šantić) in the Bácska region, is likewise threatened with complete destruction.
Károly Esterházy intended to create an intimate home for his large family. While his three sons occupied the older hunting lodge, he lived with his wife and daughter in the upper floor of the new building. The residence also contained a billiard salon where the family and their guests undoubtedly spent many cheerful hours. Among the permanent residents of the household were Father Gyula Stengl, a monk and teacher who recorded his memories in a diary, and a Black servant who had most likely joined the count’s entourage during one of his African expeditions.[8]
Settling a Family Dispute by Force
At the time of the castle’s expansion, Károly Esterházy could not yet know with certainty—though he may have suspected—that fortune would eventually smile upon him. Owing to the complicated provisions governing the family entail (hitbizomány), he would later inherit the historic Cseklész Castle, once the residence of Ferenc Esterházy, Chancellor of Queen Maria Theresa. When his elder brother, Count Ferenc Esterházy (1823–1910), died, his widow and relatives were obliged to leave the castle. Ferenc’s grandson, Count Mihály Esterházy, had died four years earlier, in 1906, leaving only daughters—Countesses Mary and Vera—who could inherit freely disposable property but not entailed estates.
Ferenc’s widow, Countess Amália Esterházy, and Mihály’s widow, Countess Antoinette Esterházy, were closely related: Amália was Antoinette’s aunt, and both originated from the Rédey family, whose own castle has likewise disappeared. Neither Countess Amália nor her relatives were willing to leave the Cseklész residence under any circumstances; indeed, they refused even to admit the lawful heir, Count Károly Esterházy. The owner of the Abraham estate therefore resorted to a stratagem. One night he and several companions, armed with hunting rifles, occupied what they regarded as their rightful inheritance:
“At last I grew tired of all the endless complications. Before both God and man this entail belonged to me, and so I resolved to act. I instructed my huntsmen to dress in full uniform and await me before the entrance of the Cseklész castle on the fifth of September. Thus it happened. Accompanied by my son Mihály, Dr. Glaser, a lawyer from Pressburg, and his office manager, I travelled to Cseklész by automobile. We found the outer gate open, but at the sound of the motorcar the inner gate was closed before us. We stood there uncertain for several minutes, when suddenly the countess’s chambermaid, out of curiosity, opened the door. The young lawyer immediately stepped forward and entered beneath the gate. The maid fled, and we marched in.”[9]
But on what grounds did the relatives of the late Count Ferenc Esterházy—Countess Amália, her niece Antoinette, and the latter’s daughters Vera and Mary—base their claim to Cseklész? The answer lay in the circumstances of Károly Esterházy’s birth, which seemed to offer the possibility that a different branch of the family might inherit the prestigious estate.
Until 1906, relations within the Esterházy family had been largely harmonious. After the death of Count Mihály, however, Károly became administrator of the entail because his elderly brother Ferenc, then owner of Cseklész, no longer had any living male heirs.[10]
At that point Prince Miklós Esterházy of the Fraknó branch, together with members of the Tata branch of the family, brought legal proceedings against him. They argued that Károly could not eventually inherit the Cseklész estate because he had been born out of wedlock. His father had lived with Vilma Felber, the daughter of a Viennese jurist, before their marriage, and therefore Károly was allegedly illegitimate.
The Royal Hungarian Lieutenancy Council, however, had already recognized the legitimacy of the younger Károly Esterházy through the subsequent marriage of his parents in 1848. In its reasoning, the court established that at the time of Károly’s conception his father’s first wife was already deceased, and that the child was born 212 days after the death of Baroness Antónia Perényi.[11] Remarkably, Count Károly remained unaware of the circumstances of his birth until the age of fifty-nine, including the fact that his half-siblings had already attempted to exclude him from inheritance through legal action when he was only five years old.[12] The dispute was ultimately settled by the Budapest court, which ruled in Károly’s favour. In December 1911, it declared that the primary right of succession to the Senec entail—and with it Cseklész Castle—belonged to him and to his descendants.[13]
In the same year, Cseklész Castle was damaged by a mysterious fire. Although a former steward was suspected because of a chimney fire, it is also known that Countess Vera Esterházy had repeatedly threatened to burn down the residence where she had spent her youth.[14] The system of entailed inheritance disrupted the lives of many aristocratic families. The descendants of Count Gyula Andrássy similarly lost their ancestral estates, since his son Tivadar had only daughters, among them the famous Countess Katalin Andrássy, wife of Count Mihály Károlyi.
The castle complex at Abraham—whose distinctive style perhaps reflected not only Count Károly’s unusual personality but also his separation from other branches of the family—partially perished after the Second World War. The old castle was simply dismantled and its building materials reused during the years of hardship when such resources were desperately needed. The newer residence was altered beyond recognition and for a time housed a vocational school. After the institution moved elsewhere, the building was abandoned and gradually fell into ruin.
To accompany this article, we have reproduced a remarkable and previously unknown postcard depicting Abraham. In one corner of the image, alongside the newer residence, the older hunting lodge can still be seen—a building about which almost nothing is presently known. The digitization of the postcard collection was carried out by the Hungarian Heritage Archives Foundation thanks to the generosity of a private collector.
Zsolt Podhorányi
[1] An estimate by Zsolt Virág, art historian and author of the “Encyclopedia of Hungarian Castles”. Kindly provided verbally.
[2] János Eszterházy: A Description of the Eszterházy Family and Its Branches. Athenaeum, Budapest, 1901. pp. 190–191.
[3] János József Gudenus: Database of the Hungarian High Nobility. Online document. https://macse.hu/db/gudenus/gudenus.php?f=ghit&id=2162&lang=hu&ds=MFAT. Last accessed: June 14, 2026.
[4] Személyi hirek. Fővárosi lapok 18(1882). 246. p. 1531.
[5] Főuri ezüstmenyegző. Magyarország 14(1907). 274. p. 10.
[6] Magyar nemzetségi zsebkönyv. Első rész: főrangú családok. Magyar Heraldikai és Genealogiai Társaság. Budapest, 1888. p. 98.
[7] József Sisa: Kastélyépítészet és kastélykultúra Magyarországon. A historizmus kora. Vince Kiadó, Budapest, 2007. pp. 261–263.
[8] Melinda Bogdán: A preceptor (Szengi Polikárp Szentábrahámban). Pannonhalmi Szemle 21(2013). 3. pp. 3–11.
[9] Aladár Fodor: A cseklészi várfoglalás. Pesti Napló 61(1910). 217. p. 6.
[10] Az Esterházyak viszálya. Délmagyarország 1(1910). 95. p. 3.
[11] Az Esterházyak viszálya, op. cit. p. 3.
[12] Az Esterházyak viszálya, op. cit. p. 4.
[13] Igazságszolgáltatás. Az Ujság 9(1911). 301. p. 17.
[14] Háboruság a vagyon körül. Népszava 39(1911). 168. p. 7. See also: Esterházy Vera gondnoksági pere. Slovenský Národný Archív. Esterházi – čekliska vetva. VIII. Michala Esterházyho a dedičov 1654 (1913–1927) C1. 661.