A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historica 11. (Szeged, 2008)

MAROSVÁRI Attila – SIPOS György: A kiszombori Rónay-kastély

TÓTH 2000 Csongrád megye építészeti emlékei. Szerk.: TÓTH Ferenc. Szeged, 2000. Csongrád Megyei Önkormányzat. Tü. jkv. Tanácsülési jegyzőkönyv VB. jkv. Községi Tanács Végrehajtó Bizottsága jegyzőkönyve VIRÁG 2005 VIRÁG Zsolt: Magyar kastélylexikon. Csongrád megye kastélyai és kúriái. Bp. 2005. Fo-Rom Invest Kft. ATTILA MAROS VÁRI - GYÖRGY SIPOS THE RÓNAY MANOR HOUSE IN KISZOMBOR The manor house, a landmark of Kiszombor was built in 1858-1859 by Móric Rónay. Rónay was the deputy clerk, later county recorder of Torontál county. He also served as the sub-prefect of the county between 1848-49 and 1861-67 and became Lord Lieutenant from 1871 to 1873. Current study not only presents the history of the construction, but also provides data on the changes of owners and functions up to nowadays, finally suggesting some ways of utilisations. It has been presented as a fact in earlier research that the Miramare Manor House in Trieste served as a direct prototype for this building. However, recent research has doubted this fact as it has been proven that the budding and the tower was built separately. The tower was attached to the mid-19

th century Classicist building at the end of the 19

th century. This discovery changed fundamentally our knowledge on the manor house, providing a chance to draw new conclusions. Most important from these is the discovery that three major rebuilding phases could be separated. The most influential rebudding was the one at the end of the 19

th century, which added Romantic elements to the Classicist building. A similar intrusion was the one taking place in 1957, which turned the manor house into a store house. The demolition of the inner walls and instalment of a new concrete ceding caused irreparable damage. Fortunately the plasterwork was basically left unchanged in 1957 and in spite of the deterioration still reflects the original outlook of the manor house. Current study presents several unpublished photos on the manor house and its park. Especially valuable are the photos taken at fin de siccle from the interiors of the manor house and were preserved by the family of Janka Kiriák, wife of Emil Rónay.