Influential dynasties and art. Eternal allies.
Italy´s Florence had the House of Medici, the Fugger Family controlled German Augsburg. In a
charming Renaissance manor house in Oponice, the Apponyi Family established the famous
Biblioteka Apponiana with 30.000 works.
And Galanta, Austrian Eisenstadt, Hungarian Fertöd, and Želiezovce are connected through the
Esterházy Family.
These powerful Hungarian aristocrats and audiophiles! They hosted Joseph Hayden, Franz Liszt and
even Franz Schubert, „the most poetic musician of 19th century.“
In their manor house in Želiezovce.
Želiezovce is a small town located 2 hours’ drive from Bratislava, 30 minutes’ drive from Levice. The
manor house was built in 1720 as a Summer residence of the Esterházy Family, first in Baroque style,
later rebuilt in Classicist style.
And here young Franz Schuber under the monumental ancient oak tree composed works for Caroline
Esterházy, the younger daughter of the Duke Esterházy. His muse and platonic love.
And here was born Eduard Sacher, a founder of the famous Sacher Hotel in Vienna, where you stand
in line not for a new iPhone, but to taste their delicious Sacher torte.
And one hour drive from Želiezovce, where the picturesque Little Danube flows into the longest
Slovak river, the Váh, is Kolárovo.
A romantic place reminiscent of The Bridges of Madison County.
With a charming 86m long wooden bridge, the longest all wood bridge in Europe, which crosses the
slowly zigzagging Little Danube.
A coulisse for photographers, filmmakers, YouTubers, Influencers, romantic souls. And the final port
for sailors after boating the Little Danube.
The twilight gently reflects off the only boat mill in Slovakia and ripples the surface of the halázsle.
There the tones of Schubert´s melancholic Opus Fantasia echo around the blazing fire and John
Denver sings that „life is old, older than the trees, but younger than the mountains, blowing like
a breeze“.
Gabriela Psotková and Valéria Polovková
