Betliar Manor

The manor house in Betliar is the only manor house in Slovakia that was preserved with its original furnishings and collections after 1945. It did not suffer the fate of our other noble residences - its furnishings were not stolen, it was not rebuilt and practically since its nationalisation it has served the purposes of a museum. So everything you will see here belonged to members of the Andrássy family, whom we consider to be the most important aristocrats in Europe in the 19th century.

Betliar was a truly luxurious mansion that was built for the purpose of representing its owners. On the site of an older smaller Renaissance manor house (from the 17th or early 18th century), a residence was built in 1881-86 under Count Emanuel I. Andrássy (1821-1891), who at that time occupied the manor house in Parchovany in Zemplín, which he used primarily as a hunting lodge and museum for his rich collection. The count was inspired mainly by English country houses, but the manor house also features elements influenced by French architecture. Emanuel's son, Count Gejza I (1856-1938) had the manor modernised in the early 20th century (c. 1905), creating a truly luxurious residence with electric lighting, central heating, 16 bathrooms, a beautiful library and numerous comfortable apartments, where, in addition to his family, the social elite who took part in the famous Betliar hunts also lived. Hunts for bears, deer, wolves and wild boar were held in the Betliar hunting grounds and in the surrounding woods that surround our extensive English park.