Wenckheim Palace - Szabadkígyós, Hungary

I am far from an architect, however I've planned to visit this castle for a while. It is the nearest I know in my local area, and the renovation was completed in 2022. The weather is getting better, so we included it in the program in the last week.

The Wenckheim family had many castles and mansions in our area, this is the largest and most beautiful. If anyone is interested in the history of the castle and the family, you can read about it on the castle's website:

https://szabadkigyosikastely.hu/en/main-page/

In short: it was built in the neo-Renaissance style in the second half of the 1800s. It was designed by Miklós Ybl, who was a popular architect throughout Europe in his time.

It has 52 rooms, 12 entrances and 4 building parts.

Its renovation was completed last year with joint funding (50-50%) from the state and the EU. So we wanted to see what for they really needed $8.3 million.
This part remains an eternal question, maybe if we add the state and EU bureaucrats' own newly built castles, then the amount will come out.

It looks very impressive from the outside, especially its main entrance. However, I ran out of more spectacular photos here. Its insides seemed disheartening. In principle, a complete renovation was carried out. This is not visible on the inside of the building. The equipment is painfully ugly and sparse. You can immediately tell about some of the objects that they were put in there just so that the building wouldn't stagnate because of the emptiness. I really don't know why it took $8 million and almost 3 years.

The small front garden of the castle has been tidied up, but its wider surroundings have not. You should know that it is located in the middle of nowhere in the lowlands, great plain. In its best days, its wider surroundings must have looked better.

In the pictures I saw before the renovation, the last two rooms had a wonderful wooden ceiling, which was simply removed and replaced in the usual way. What a shame. Complete renovation! :)

Unfortunately, it was not possible to go up to the towers, again I don't understand why, if it is completely renovated.

Overall, a nice building, but rather depressing inside, especially when entering through the main entrance. On the outside, it promised much more.

For the sake of completeness, here is a picture of the castle taken from the air. I've seen similar tourist-attracting videos and aerial photographs of it, unfortunately the view is not so imposing in reality and a maximum half-hour program to walk through the building and around it.

Source: szabadkigyosikastely.hu

Postscript: If someone knowledgeable is reading this, I would like to hear his/her opinion: Why did this renovation cost $8 million??? Why so expensive?