Helikon Castle Museum Enriched with Valuable Treasures

Silver-plated gold cutlery and chalices with the Festetics coat of arms have been added to the Helikon Castle Museum in Keszthely (western shore of Lake Balaton), where infrastructural improvements and the restoration of existing artifacts are being prepared in the coming period.

Zsanett Oláh, managing director of the National Heritage Conservation Development Nonprofit Ltd., said at a press conference on Thursday, that the improvement of the visitor experience and the quality of services, as well as the condition of the building, justify further improvements and renovations, and are planned to be implemented in the next year.

Two new entry points, a ticket office, a bicycle rental point, and the renewal of the irrigation system, benches, walkways, and a palm house will be added, the manager said. She added that there will also be 300 new information boards in the museum area, and the audio guided tour system will be renewed, while the carpets and cordons will be replaced.

In the autumn, both main staircases will be painted, curtains will be revamped, and 42 existing artifacts will be restored. The restoration of the wooden staircase will also begin, and the billiard room will be given a new interior, said Oláh.

As she noted,

the planned cost of the works is HUF 500 million (EUR 1.2 million), but in parallel, preparations for the renovation of the structural elements of the building will also begin.

This concerns the roof structure, the insulation, as well as the windows and doors, which have not been extensively worked on in the last 30-35 years.

Oláh also pointed out that at the end of last year, the 48 pieces of silver-plated gold tableware that belonged to György Festetics I and his son László were bought back. These artifacts are now on display in the dining room of the aristocratic mansion.

Bálint Nagy, State Secretary for Transport at the Ministry of Construction and Transport, maintainer of the castle, stressed that the castle and the Festetics heritage are of great cultural and touristic value to the region and should be preserved and cherished with dignity. The improvements now planned will further strengthen the role and popularity of the castle among domestic and foreign visitors.

Speaking about the newly acquired Festetics treasures, museologist Laura Kardos said that

the 12 chalices and 36 cutlery items that complement the similar set of tableware already acquired, were acquired at an auction in Vienna last December.

The chalices with lids were made in Vienna in 1817, and the six smaller cups in 1821, as was the set of cutlery, all bearing the Festetics coat of arms and the initials of the masters who made them.

The artifacts, recovered since 2019, aim to showcase the aristocratic dining culture, and the silver and gilded silverware has now been used to create a dining room and a serving room. In the 1942 inventory of the castle, the treasures of the former silver chamber were listed over three pages, none of which were later left behind, which is why the aim was to recover as many of the castle’s ‘Seuso treasures’ as possible through art purchases, the museologist added.

Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay