Nádasdy Café
Nádasdy Mansion is a truly romantic fairytale mansion. Mostly travelling, hunting, art and culture provided recreation for the Nádasdy family.
“The ceremony ended with a rich lunch where the cheerfulness and good mood of those present was common. Almost all the workers were treated to it.”
Hunting, hospitality, sophisticated dinners, entertainment and drinking coffee characterised the days spent here. The Nádasdys were famous for their refined taste – it was no different in the field of gastronomy.
The portraits of the Nádasdy officer corps give a peculiarly unique character to the café that illustrates all the above so well. “To the left of the billiard room, we reach the dining room, all four walls of which are covered by a collection of life-size oil-paint portraits of equal dimensions, placed neatly next to each other, depicting the famous equestrian general Count Ferencz Nádasdy and his officer corps. Among the chief officers there is an Andrássy too: Károly, the later general. The Nádasdy Hussar Regiment is also famous for being the oldest hussar regiment of our army. The areas of wall above the doors are covered with images of battles. This room also has some surprisingly beautiful old stoves, old furniture, majolica and porcelain ornaments: in the tower room connected to this room stand cupboards full of glass jars.”
Besides participating in hunts, lunches, dinners, and being entertainment on the banks of the Danube, 17th-century nobles spent time horse racing, target shooting, gambling – the most popular gambling game of the era was called ‘céduláskocka’- watching fair comedy performances, shopping or just looking around, when they were in town at certain times, such as during a sitting of the parliament. In addition, due to being situated in the countryside, the major social events of aristocratic courts were mainly grouped around bathing and family events such as engagements, weddings, baptisms and funerals, but they often hosted each other for lunch or dinner for no particular reason as well. It is clear from the correspondence, recollections, and diary entries that women participated in social life with the same intensity as men.
Nádasdy Café, established in the mansion, is meant to evoke this atmosphere for the visitors – a slice and a drop of the milieu that surrounded the residents and guests of the mansion. The elegant café awaits visitors to the mansion during visiting hours.
You can enjoy your coffee either in the special museum interior or in the wonderful conservatory.
It really is worth seeing and trying out what it is like to have coffee and cake in a truly elegant setting, just like the aristocrats used to. It is a wonderful spectacle to behold.
The café may be visited during the mansion’s regular visiting hours.
