Szabadkigyos Palace

The Wenckheim palace at Szabadkigyos was built between 1875 and 1879 to a design by Miklos Ybl, the architect of the Budapest opera house, for a family that owned much of this corner of the plain, and it is neo-Renaissance in the confident manner of that decade: a long facade with a corner tower, a grand staircase, a ballroom and something over a hundred rooms, set in an English park of around sixty hectares with mature planes and oaks. It was nationalised after the war and used as an agricultural school for decades, which wore the interiors hard; restoration has recovered the main rooms in stages and continues. The park is open and used by the village.

What you actually see

• Ybl's neo-Renaissance facade - the architect of the Budapest opera in the country.
• The grand staircase and ballroom - the restored formal rooms.
• A sixty-hectare English park - mature planes and oaks around the house.
• Traces of the school years - the decades of institutional use.

When to go

April to October for the park. Two hours. Only part of the interior is open and the accessible rooms change as restoration proceeds; check before travelling.

Honest expectations

Restoration is partial and some wings remain closed or shabby. Labelling is sparse and rarely translated. The village has almost no services. It is a long way from Budapest.

Nearby

Gyula is east; Bekescsaba lies west.