Horváth László szerk.: Mátrai Tanulmányok (Gyöngyös, 2005)
Orczy Mansion of Gyöngyös
MÁTRAI TANULMÁNYOK GYÖNGYÖS 2005 p. 91-93 Orczy Mansion of Gyöngyös In the eastern part of Gyöngyös, next to the road 24 leading to the Mátra Hills, the classicist building of the Orczy Mansion can be found, which has been one of the cultural centres of the town since the 1950's. It has been home of the Mátra Museum for nearly 50 years; the books of the Franciscan Library were preserved here, and the building functioned as the local library between 1958 and 1984. Despite incomplete data, the history of its construction can be traced back to the end of the 18 th century. This area and the buildings were connected with the Orczy family during centuries. Due to his marriage to Zsuzsanna Petrovay, István Orczy became a landowner in 1708. After his death in 1749, the major part of the land was inherited by his son, Lőrinc I. The town itself became important for the family from the end of the 18 th century. József Orczy I, whose wife was Borbála Berényi, and owing to this obtained the so-called Haller-land, lived all his life in this town. When he died in 1804, his sons, József II, Lőrinc II and László II inherited his property. József II got the Fabrika, a cloth-factory; László II got the Haller Mansion in Petőfi Street, while Lőrinc II inherited the Baroque mansion next to the road to the Mátra. Lőrinc Orczy II chose this building to be the main residence of the family. Since he did not have any sons, his estate became the heir of the Szapáry family, the Prince of Auersperg, the Westphalen family and later on the Wildburg family because of the marriages of the female line. The family namely the heiresses were present in the life of the town until the late 1930's. In the end, Mrs. Arthur Wildburg sold the mansion to the town in the middle of the 1930's, and hereby the land-owning of the Orczy family was over in Gyöngyös. István Orczy, who became a baron in 1736, was one of the biggest landowners in the town, moreover he was also the captain of the Jazygians and the Cumanians. In 1723 he asked for a garden-site and he got it. It was the ground where the mansion is situated even now. His son, Baron Lőrinc Orczy, had a U-formed mansion in Baroque style built on the land of the one-time farmstead in 1769-70. This two-story building with open corridors was reconstructed at the end of the 1700's, in such a way that the open arcades upstairs were walled up, only some windows were cut to let the light in the corridors. In 1826 the mansion was rebuilt again, this time in classicist style, on the basis of Lőrinc Zohfal's design. Then the originally U-shaped building became a house with a closed yard, so that a new main entrance was constructed on the. eastern side with the partial pulling down of the eastern annexe. The building became a bit higher, the external facade gained immense classicist style. Due to the construction of the new side-wing, the new main entrance and the new staircase, the one-time so impressive internal facades almost totally disappeared from the view of the guests and the visitors, who did not practically see the closed yard inside the annexes. Thanks to this, the facades in the yard were rather puritan in comparison with the pomp of the external facade. The northern wing, which closes the yard, was designed later.
