Benkő Andrea: A Guide to Petőfi Literary Museum (Budapest, 2009)

The History of the Palace

THE HISTORY OF THE PALACE

From written records we know the history of the land- plot and the building on it from the end of the 17th century onwards. According to the 'Zaiger' (the first inquiry into the proprietary rights of the land-plots in the town of Pest after it had been liberated from Turkish rule) there were four plots of land on the present site. These were united, and in 1694 Nikolaus Wilfersheim Imperial and Royal commissioner started construction. By 1696, a spacious and elegant house with more than one storey and 18 rooms stood there. In 1747, Count Ferenc Barkóczy, Bishop of Eger and later Archbishop of Esztergom, who was famous for his patronage of the arts, became the new owner of the property. H is palace was probably the most beautiful and most famous in the town of Pest. The U-shaped, two-storey, Baroque palace stood in the middle of the street front of the land-plot. At the back behind the rooms, an arcaded loggia connected the three wings. The imposing banqueting hall was situated in the central part of the building. To one side as a separate outhouse were the carriage house and the stables. The back of the land- plot was occupied by a large garden divided into four plots. On 4th August 1751, Empress Maria Theresa visited the Palace when she arrived in Pest with her husband Francis of Lorraine and their retinue. After land- 1 ing, the couple proceeded directly to Barkóczy's Palace and, from the first floor windows, greeted the soldiers and citizens who marched past in their honour.

In 1768 the Palace was bought by Count Antal Károlyi (1732-1791), thus passing into the possession of the Károlyi family, a family with a historical past, who held estates primarily in Eastern Hungary, and remained in their possession for more than one hundred and fifty years. During this time it underwent reconstruction several times. Around the 1760s, the

Károlyis began the almost simultaneous construction of their municipal palaces in Vienna and Pest. The implementation of the 1769 plan - according to which the U-shaped main building was to receive symmetrically an L-shaped, storied wing on both sides, and the architecture of the street front was also to be rebuilt - took until 1791. In 10 years, perhaps as a consequence of the devastating flood in 1775, only the extension of the main building towards the south was completed. At the time of the disaster, Antal Károlyi opened his Palace to homeless refugees. As Captain of the Bodyguards of Vienna, Count Antal Károlyi spent more and more time there from 1785, although he also was also determined to complete his Palace in Pest. It was in this year that the Károlyi Family archive was set up in the splendid building. On Antal Károlyi's death in 1791, an inventory was made, which testifies that the Palace represented modern tastes and had become a building worthy of the aristocratic family and well able to meet their needs. 50 rooms, 3 libraries, an archive, 5 separate kitchens and other service rooms provided convenience. Downstairs there were guests' rooms, servants' rooms, offices and service rooms, and a billiard hall in the north corner. 67 beds (including 2 four- poster beds), 153 tables, 33 couches, 2 sofas, 382 chairs and 9 benches completed the furnishing. 355 pictures hung on the walls. Since in the life of the family that led the famous Károlyi hussars respect for horses was traditional, a huge stable with room for more than 40 horses was built in the north side-wing in the place where the carriage houses had once stood. Finished in 1808, the new horse training-school constructed along Mihály Pollack's plans replaced the temporary one, which had been built in the garden. The court wings surrounding the formal courtyard opened onto the separated spacious Baroque-style French garden, where plants arranged in geometric formations flourished.

Count József Károlyi (1768-1803) Lord Lieutenant of Békés County and his wife gave magnificent balls inside the Palace walls. The Palatine József was a frequent guest. At the inauguration of the palatine on 19th September 1795, 'the splendour of Count Károlyi's Palace deservedly caught onlookers' attention. The gate was left open and the gateway was lit with many candles. A little along from the gate, a pyramid could be seen in the courtyard, and still further on eyes were caught by the lit-up garden gate' (Magyar Hírmondó, Vienna). On 3rd May 1800, to celebrate the name day of the Palatine József's young wife, Alexandra Pavlovna, a splendid ceremony was