Part 3: The Palace Tour Ends
Paintings hung everywhere and I couldn't possible do justice to them, but here are some of the palace that I liked (sorry about the second one, it was dark):
There were also many, many portraits in the palace. The tour guide pointed out the visiting royalty portraits, and the family portraits, and named them all and told stories about a few. But I don't remember much, if anything, of that narrative.
I do remember seeing some rather skinny men and some rather pleasant looking women, some were downright beautiful. OK, so my sexual orientation shows here, so what?
Here are three of the portraits that I simply liked looking at, they were Esterhazy women (in one case with her son):
There were also photos of the more recent family members. This is the current Esterhazy matriarch, a very nice looking woman, but I don't know how old this photo is, so don't question my assertion that this lady is the young woman in the next photo from over 50 years ago:
And this is a very famous Esterhazy ballerina (the same person as the woman pictured above) that had to be smuggled out of Hungary because of the communists not liking Esterhazys and other rich people, so she came here: a very good move at that time (but Hungary is perfectly safe to go back to now, even for rich people)!
OK, here is the real scoop in case you had some doubt (as I, frankly, did too), it is the same woman but she is currently older than her above photo suggests. On the official website for the palace here is what is says about this lady and her husband (who died in 1989):
| Prince Paul V Esterházy (1901-1989) Born in Eisenstadt on 23rd March 1901. Married to Melinda Ottrubay. Primogenitary head of estate (1920-1989). Doctor of Laws and Political Sciences. Imprisoned from 1948 to 1956 after a mock trial held by the Hungarian Communist Government. Died in Zurich on 25th May 1989. Princess Melinda Esterházy (born in Budapest in 1920) Married Prince Paul V Esterházy in 1946. Prior to that celebrated prima ballerina assoluta at the Budapest National Opera House. After fleeing Hungary in 1956, the couple lived in Zurich. After the death of her husband in 1989 Princess Melinda became the sole heiress and incorporated the estates into several trusts managed today by the corporation Esterházy Betriebe GesmbH with seat of office in Eisenstadt. |
Saving the best for last on this tour meant seeing the Haydn music room, a room specially built for his full orchestral and other performances to larger audiences. Lucky for us, there was a practice session going on for the Haydn concert that was to start soon:
I simply could not do justice to this room with my small camera, so tried to capture just a little detail (the dark spot at the bottom is a fellow tour-ist's head, he should have removed it):
OK, that was the best. Now we have to go outside! Looking out the palace library window I had already spotted where I was going next, the gardens of course!
So, off we go to languish in these gardens (now a city park).
Go to Eisenstadt Part 4: the palace gardens
Go to Eisenstadt Part 5: the Haydn church or Bergkirche
Go back to Eisenstadt Part 1: the Esterhazy palace and Haydn's home
Go back to Eisenstadt Part 2: the palace tour begins
Go to ThoughtsandPlaces.Org Home Page
Go to Semmering