Rusovce mansion, Manor house in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Rusovce mansion is a two-storey, three-winged building arranged in a U shape around a court of honour, its facade divided by many windows and balconies. The south front faces a garden, and a low brick wall runs along the street side. It was rebuilt in Tudor neo-Gothic style between 1843 and 1850 to designs by Vienna architect Franz Beer, with building work carried out by Ignaz Feigler the Elder of Pressburg.
A castle called Uruzwar stood here by 1266, when King Béla IV granted Rusovce to Herrand Hédervári. In 1646 the estate became the seat of the Zichy family, and in 1656 Štefan Zichy rebuilt the castle as a late-Renaissance manor. Emanuel Zichy-Ferraris gave it its present Tudor Gothic form in 1843–1850, with the foundation stone laid on 11 June 1843 by Chancellor Metternich.
The estate's name in Hungarian, Oroszvár, and its German name, Karlburg, are still used alongside the Slovak Rusovce. The Zichy family, owners from 1646, made the mansion a place of births and marriages, earning it the nickname "Hungarian Windsor". Bertha von Suttner spent Christmas 1906 here with the Lónyays and wrote about the visit in the Neue Freie Presse.
The mansion is not open to the public and is managed by the Slovak Government Office. Those interested in viewing its exterior and grounds can see them from nearby viewpoints or contact the Rusovce borough for more information.
The mansion's library of 3,300 titles in 4,500 volumes was taken to Pannonhalma Abbey in Hungary, where the Benedictines had sheltered the Lónyays in 1945; it remains there today. Bertha von Suttner spent Christmas 1906 with the couple here and wrote about the visit in the Neue Freie Presse.
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