Wenckheim Mansion, Neo-Renaissance château in Szabadkígyós, Hungary
Wenckheim Mansion is a one-storey Neo-Renaissance and Eclectic building designed by Miklós Ybl, with a tower and a loggia terrace, linked to a separate staff and kitchen wing by a loggia corridor. Its interior held a chapel, dining room, winter garden, library, men's and women's salons and bedrooms; today only the library and some lower rooms can be visited.
Renowned architect Miklós Ybl designed and built this residence between 1875 and 1879 for the Wenckheim family during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The building reflects the ambitions and prosperity of the nobility during that era.
Countess Krisztina Wenckheim asked Miklós Ybl that nothing be alike yet harmonious, and that the house have as many windows as days in a year, as many rooms as weeks and as many entrances as seasons. The library, with its fine volumes, is the one original interior still open to visitors. The 1970 film Szeressétek Odor Emiliát! was shot here and in the park.
The mansion stands in Szabadkígyós, within the Körös–Maros National Park, and its park has been a protected area since 1954. Of the representational interiors, only the library can be visited, though several lower halls are now also open. Renovation as part of the National Castle and Fortress Programme began in 2018.
Wenckheim Krisztina asked Miklós Ybl that nothing be alike yet all harmonious: the mansion was to have as many windows as days in a year, as many rooms as weeks and as many entrances as seasons. In front of the building, opposite the chapel, stands the Zsigmond spring, drilled in 1894 and today fed artificially.
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