Festetics castle in Keszthely

The castle began to be constructed by Christoph Festetics in 1745. From that time on the spacious castle with its 34 rooms was rebuilt in the following centuries and was expanded each time. Today with its 101 rooms Festetics castle is the third largest baroque palaces in Hungary.

Its admirable beauty attracted country rules, princes, diplomats and members of famous families in the last centuries. During the last two decades such notable visitors as the Belgian royal couple, President of Portugal, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Italy, China and Vietnam all paid a visit.

The castle is now a museum and conference center. More than 200 thousand visitors look at the its permanent and temporary exhibitions a year. The number of the musical events are almost a hundred.

When you reach the grounds of the castle you will face its main gate behind which you get a magnificent of its park. The gardeners plant 70 thousand annual flowers a year. The front garden is decorated with chestnut trees, Turkish hazel, lilac, black ferries and among and a bronze statue of George Festetics and a fountain are alos place at this part of the ground. To the west of the castle one can come across a French garden with two fountains and at the back an English garden. The park was planned to host rare and today more than 50 species of trees, a small pond with waterfall enrich the park. At the back of the garden there is an exhibition of carriages. This building used to be the former stable.

When entering the castle in the first room Christopher Festetics to be see who founded the castle. The richly carved
oak staircase connects the floors with an ancestral gallery of the family members from the 18th and 19th Century.

The Palace Museum in the south wing takes in several rooms with their original furnishings, including the Chapel, the great Dining Room, which is now used for concerts and other events, and the famous Helikon Library, with its 80,000 volumes and it is considered to be the largest and only grand collection of books in Hungary that has survided the wars.

Under the arcades of the old trees summer theater performances are organized in the summer. Visitors can enjoy evening tours - with music and candlelight. On request guided tours in German, English, Russian, Italian are also possible.