Esterházy Palace is the largest rococo building of its kind in Hungary. The original manor house, which is the core of the building, was constructed in 1721 by Anton Erhard Martinelli.
Esterházy Palace History
Between 1764 and 1784 Prince Miklós Esterházy extended it on the basis of his own plans, although Melchior Hefele was the architect chiefly involved in its rebuilding.
Several architects, including Miklós Jakoby, collaborated on the project. The park was created in the Baroque style and is also credited to Esterházy, although after his death it fell into disrepair. Parts of the building were damaged in 1944 and 1945 during WWII, and restoration was carried out in 1958 and 1959.
The elevation of the main building is a three-story central block of eleven bays, the three central bays of which have an additional story and project slightly.
The ground floor is banded, and the balconied stories above are articulated by giant pilasters. Two wings of the same elevation as the central block extend out, forming a large cour d’honneur, the inner angles of which are curved.
The court is closed off at its front end by balconied wings of one story with blind arcades and by an ornate Rococo wrought-iron gate adorned with vases. A fountain of a cherub with a dolphin is in the center of the courtyard. Six bays of the garden façade project toward the extensive formal gardens designed in the French manner.
The grounds originally had a music house where Joseph Haydn was a resident composer and Kapellmeister from 1761. On the ground floor, the Sala Terrena (one of 126 rooms) has a ceiling frescoed (1766) by Josef Ignaz Mildorfer.
Johann Basilius Grundmann executed a fresco of Apollo on the Chariots of the Sun in the banquet hall on the first floor; the room also contains sculptures of the Four Seasons by Johann Joseph Rössler. The chapel has frescoes by Mildorfer. After years of neglect, the interior of the palace was restored by Zsigmond Babics at the end of the 19th century.
Esterházy Palace Location
Esterházy Palace Address: Eszterháza 9431 Fertőd, Joseph Haydn út 2, Hungary. Get directions using the map provided below: