Festetics Palace
Baroque and neo-Baroque country palace near Lake Balaton, with the Helikon Library and formal park.
Building began in 1745 for Kristóf Festetics, whose family had acquired the Keszthely estate at the western end of Lake Balaton. His grandson György Festetics, founder of the Georgikon agricultural college and host of the Helikon literary gatherings, enlarged the house and assembled its library. The decisive change came between 1883 and 1887, when Tasziló Festetics commissioned the Vienna-based architect Viktor Rumpelmayer to more than double the palace in a neo-Baroque manner, adding the tower, chapel and ceremonial wing that give the building its present silhouette.
With just over a hundred rooms it is among the largest surviving country houses in Hungary and one of the few that kept much of its original furniture through the twentieth century. The Helikon Library, lined with carved oak bookcases by János Kerbl, holds roughly ninety thousand volumes. Visitors also see the mirror hall, the chapel and the family apartments, while outbuildings in the grounds house a carriage museum, a hunting and arms collection, a model railway display and a bird park. The formal park and its lime avenues are open separately.
Highlights
- Helikon Library with carved oak cases and 90,000 volumes
- Neo-Baroque wing and tower added in the 1880s
- Mirror hall, chapel and furnished family apartments
- Carriage, hunting and model railway collections in the grounds
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
