Renewal of Esterházy-Mansion in Fertőd about to Begin13 March 2009
The first development phase of the Esterháza Central European Cultural Centre will be implemented from EU funding of over 1.3 billion HUF in value. The assistance contract of the priority project was signed by Mr Jácint Horváth Managing Director of the Western Trans-danubian Regional Development Agency Non-profit Company and Dr Kálmán Varga Director of the National Trust for Historical Monuments on 10 March at the Esterházy Mansion.
The key objective of the development of the mansion and its surroundings is to enrich the cultural and environmental values of the mansion in a sustainable manner with the aim of increasing the number of visitors, generating more revenues and beginning the construction of the necessary cultural, logistics, entertainment and tourism infrastructure.
Renewal work carried out on the mansion complex over the past few decades (minor restorations, facade renewal) did not bring about results that can be sustained in the long run. Experiences we have gathered so far also demonstrate that developments aimed at boosting tourism appeal linked to regional development, i.e. complex regional development, are the only means for ensuring the sustainable use of the mansion complex.
The implementation of the project is justified by how the mansion complex in its current form does not offer suffiecient attractions satisfying the demands of today’s visitors. It is necessary to extend the scope of tourism services offered at the mansion in order to be able increase the number of visitors; the present project establishes the basis for this and outlines the first series of steps to be taken. The facades along the park side and the courtyard will be renewed, the salons of the main building and the roof structure of the puppet theatre will be reconstructed and a parking lot will be created within the framework of the first phase of the development beginning in spring this year.
The asset manager of the mansion complex, namely, Dr Kálmán Varga Director of the National Trust for Historical Monuments said that the Government placed the nearly 1.6 billion HUF investment of the first development phase of the mansion on the list of priority projects in November 2007, which ensured the opportunity for a unique Hungarian historical building famous throughout Europe to be allocated EU funding without having to go through the regular tendering procedure. According to plans, construction work will begin at the mansion in spring 2009 and is expected to be completed in 2011.
Work tying in with the foundation of the Esterháza Central European Cultural Centre will by no means be fully completed in the first phase of the restoration development project that is about to begin. The second phase of the development is currently being prepared, within the framework of which, among others, the number of renewed buildings would increase, a part of the mansion park would be renewed and a visitor’s centre would be constructed, which on the one hand would provide services for tourists visiting the mansion and the World Heritage-listed site and would also function as the tourism centre of the region. The envisaged budget of the second phase is equivalent to approximately 2.5 billion HUF, which, once implemented, would make the Esterházy Mansion evolve into a European-level centre of the Fertő Region World Heritage Site.
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