Page 205 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Hungary

SOUTHERN TR ANSD ANUBIA  203

. Mirror Room VISITORS’ CHECKLIST
The ornate Mirror
Room, also known Practical Information
as the Main Hall, Kastély utca 1, Keszthely. Road
regularly hosts Map B4. Tel (83) 31 21 90.
chamber music n Tourinform, Kossuth utca 30,
concerts and (83) 31 41 44. Open May, Jun &
operettas. Sep: 10am– 5pm daily; Jul & Aug:
9am–6pm daily; Oct–Apr: 10am–
5pm Tue–Sun. & 8 7 - =
charge for photography and use
of video ca meras. ∑ helikon
kastely.hu
Transport
£ @ 4

Chapel
The small, private Festetics
Chapel was built in 1801,
remaining unchanged by the
enlargements of the 1880s.

Portrait Gallery
Portraits of almost
every member of
the Festetics family,
Croatian in origin,
as well as of related . Library
European nobility, The panelled Helikon Library holds over 80,000
line the walls of volumes on its oak shelves. Hungary’s literary
the palace. elite gathered here in György Festetics’s time.

György Festetics
A polymath who combined a love of the land and the arts with the
progressive ideals of the Enlightenment, György Festetics (1755–1819)
was the grandson of Kristóf Festetics, who purchased the lands for the
family estate here in 1739. György Festetics is best known for founding
the Georgikon at Keszthely in 1797 (see p200), Europe’s first agricultural college.
A generous patron of the arts, he organized cultural events including poetry
and music festivals at the palace. He substantially expanded the palace’s Statue of György
library, employing librarians and bookbinders to curate his literary treasures.
Festetics

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