The winds of change, and new technologies blew through the 19th century.
Communication and broadcasting were not things for the cell phone and WhatsApp, radio stations or the
internet.
But the telegraph.
Carl von Linde gave the world the refrigerator.
And Karl Benz designed and built the first practical car.
A Belle Époque.
After saying it couldn’t been done, the Eiffel Tower became a sensation.
The art movements changed faster than Facebook or Instagram posts.
A small village located in the Nitra river basin, two hours’ drive from Bratislava, became a centre of the
decadence in Slovakia and Hungary.
And there, a little girl lived. Her name was Natalia.
Her father was Earl Gustav Vogl von Friesenhof, a successful Austrian diplomat in the car’s court in St.
Petersburg.
The name of her mother was Alexandra Nikolaevna Goncar, a sister-in-law of the Russian literary genius,
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
Brodzany.
A village veiled at the foot of the Nitrianska pahorkatina mountains and the Tribeč mountains, 2km from
Partizánske and 15km from Topoľčany.
And there is a charming Renaissance-style manor house situated in its heart, surrounded by an exquisite
English park.
Along the curving paths between monumental plane trees beside the cascades of the Geradza stream, their
stories revealed.
About beautiful Natalia von Oldenburg, née von Friesenhof.
The mysterious and alluring femme fatale.
The intelligent and eccentric spearhead of the decadence in Slovakia and Hungary.
The talented, emancipated and philanthropic musician, artist and poet.
“The Bell of Vienna society.”
She commissioned the construction of several unique sites: the first pet cemetery in Slovakia, and a glorious
summer residence, christened Babylon hidden on a hill in the forest.
The world would be truly be a monochromatic place without glamorous, amazing and inspiriting women!
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin would have never written Eugene Onegin.
Auguste Rodin would have never sculptured The Thinker or The Kiss.
And Emmanuel Macron would have never been elected President of France.
