Manor house in Voderady

The manor is the oldest building in Voderady and it is still unknown when it was built or who built it. The vaults of his ground floor point to its antiquity. The first description by the Slovak polyhistor Matej Bel (1684 - 1749) from 1736 states that the manor house is in poor condition. Notifications from Bratislava County in 1736 state that it is in poor condition. Only its western part was habitable and looked a little better.

In 1750, the Royal Governing Council announced that Michal Ocskay had relinquished the lien on the property of the Bishop of Rab, František Ziči in Voderady. He demands that Michal Ocskay appear before the commission on November 3, 1750, which is in charge of managing the property of the Bishop of Rab.

In this connection, too, an inventory of the manor house, cellar, mayor, garden and mill was made on October 12, 1756 and March 17, 1759. The inventory confirms the poor condition of the manor and its equipment. In addition to worn and damaged equipment (broken chairs, table, bed, etc.), it also lists damaged and broken arches. There were about 60 paintings in the manor, three Turkish rugs, a mangel, and even a net for catching squirrels was included in the detailed inventory. In the cellar there was Voderad and Rača wine from 1750, 1753, 1757, some set aside for Mr. Ocskaya. The owner's farm was weak (18 cows, 1 bull, 5 calves, 29 pigs and poultry). The shepherd was in charge of 414 sheep and purchased for Mr. Ocskaya 117. The inventory of the kitchen, the gardener and the equipment of the dairy and cheese factory were also listed. The manorial mill was in a very bad condition. The inventories were written in weak Latin and the writer preferred to write the mill equipment in Slovak.

The existing literature states that the manor house was built in the middle of the 18th century. This figure seems to be postponed to a much earlier period.

Originally a ground-floor manor house, it was radically rebuilt and expanded in the years 1860 - 1870 by Count František Zič in the manner of early-empire buildings, while it was also extended and built on another floor. This created a two-storey three-winged building, built around a square courtyard with an open south side. The main front wing is oriented to the courtyard by a balustrade terrace, built on open segmental arcades. In the middle there is a two-axis risalit, above the roof ledge accentuated by a low attic with two plastic family coats of arms Ziči and Keglevič.

The building is oriented to the axially solved park by a longitudinal facade with a middle risalit composed of a remote view.

In the interiors of the manor, the spatial dominant is a one-armed staircase and a ceremonial hall on the first floor. In the central hall, the ceiling is decorated with stucco ornaments. Other rooms are passable and have flat ceilings.

The legend

The Hungarian county monograph from 1903 states that the manor house in Voderady belonged to the Templars according to ancient traditions. According to historian Dr. Ovid Faust was once a Templar castle in Voderady. Such a judgment was made on the basis that in 1297, according to his findings, the owner of Voderád was the master Abraham Rufus, the son of Menoldov. Master Abraham Rufus is considered by some historians to be a member of the Order of the Templars and the ruins in the park to be the remains of a massive castle of this knightly order. According to O. Faust, these findings are indirectly confirmed by the fact that František Ziči st. he found a statue of the mysterious idol Baphomet in the basement of the manor, which he later donated to his friend from Vienna, the Orientalist Hammer-Purgstall. The idol is said to be located in Vienna. If the claim of finding a statue of Baphomet in the underground room of the manor were true, it would be a unique testimony in the historical dispute over the Templars. Information about the find of the statue by Count František Zič Sr., or about its handing over to the orientalist Hammer-Purgstall, has not been confirmed to this day.

O. Faust identified the wall near the manor house as the remains of the ancient Templar castle. It is about 25 meters long and 7 meters high, with two square bastions. In the middle of the wall there is a false semicircular portal, above which a Latin inscription board was once installed between two coats of arms, transferred from Orava Castle (more in the section Stone Secrets from Voderad Park). The wall forms a kind of corridor in the Moorish-Iberian style.

O. Faust's assertion that this so-called the Templar ruin is a remnant of the strength of the real Templars, they were refuted by research led by Ing. arch. J. Žuffová, who confirmed that the building dates from the 19th century, and is therefore only a romantic addition to the park. The task of the Voderad park ruin was to give the park more to its mystery and antiquity.

The Voderadský manor became famous especially for its accumulated collections of art-historical objects from all over the world and to a number of rare books. In the manor house there were rare art objects collected mainly on the roads of František Ziči st. in the 1970s after France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. His collection was later significantly enriched by his son František, grandson František and great-grandson Jozef.

According to the description from the county monograph, which describes the collections inside the manor in some detail, on the ground floor in the hall of Louis XV. found oil paintings by Emperor Maximilian and his wife Charlotte by the Austrian painter Wintertalter. In the second room on the ground floor of the manor there were rare Japanese porcelain, bronze objects, 45 candlesticks and beautiful tall vases brought from Japan. The third room was entered through a masterfully inlaid door from the 16th century. On the walls were paintings by Tintoretto and van der Helter, rare cabinets and a stick made of tropical wood with a diamond monogram from the Siamese king, which was given to František Ziči.

In the mansion upstairs was a library with 10,000 to 12,000 books. Next to the library was a study with old paintings and a Sicilian cabinet carved from walnut roots, decorated with 98 figures. There was also a mosaic head, coming from the church of St. Mark, relief by Petr Fischer and portrait of František Deák by Barabáš.

The manor's bedroom was decorated with masterfully inlaid cabinets and paintings by old masters. In the large hall were 17 silver reliefs made by Augsburg goldsmiths in the 16th and 17th centuries. There was a portrait of František Ziči by Blaas, inlaid cabinets, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Indian, German and Chinese cans. Also interesting was the Italian Renaissance ebony cabinet decorated with ivory, old oil paintings, porcelain vase from Herend, German cabinets with marble plates, Paduan, Karlhaus and Italian ebony cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl, two Venetian chandeliers, five vases, Pompadour, an old Milan table and mirror, an old ebony cabinet with bone decoration and the coat of arms of the Viscontians, a cabinet decorated with jewels and bronze figures from the 16th century and a Roman mosaic table.

The small salon was decorated with ivory works from the 15th and 16th centuries, a unique Chinese lacquered eight-winged screen decorated with inlays and silk flowers, Chinese stone figures and vessels, a collection of porcelain from the oldest factories, inlaid cabinets, oil paintings by old masters and an ivory chalice. came from the catacombs in Raven. The chalice was a gift from Archbishop Lonovics and dates from the first centuries of Christianity.

The Chinese saloon featured genuine Chinese wallpaper and Chinese furniture, lots of porcelain and enamel, and a lacquered screen decorated with Chinese legends, donated by Napoleon I to the Prince of Melz. Count František Ziči later received it from the prince's grandson.

The Meissen service, a gift from Maria Kristina, an Indian and Venetian showcase, eleven rare miniature paintings, a collection of coins, medals and seals were exhibited in the free count's office.

The guest rooms have been decorated with rare furniture and paintings. In one there were 68 engravings of Bratislava, old gouache and ten paintings by Count František Ziči and his family from 1809.

In another room hung paintings of old masters and a relief from 1700, and there was a closet inlaid with various marbles.

In a small cabinet was a collection of Hungarian faience, in the eastern room of the saddle of Emperor Maximilian, old hunting weapons, old Japanese weapons and moving oil paintings.

In the large dining room there was a rare collection of Chinese and Japanese pottery (680 pieces), in the serving room two real Urbin pieces of faience, old Rhodes and Moorish plates, old vases, bowls and jugs. The walls of the upper dining room were decorated with family paintings, 107 pieces of Japanese and Chinese vessels, and a rare vase from Beijing dating from the 14th century. There were Japanese bronze objects on the stairs.

In the monastery chapel there were paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries, wood carvings from the Dűrer school and wooden mosaics. On the altar was a beautiful ivory cross, which was a gift from the French Archbishop Fenelon. In the chapel were paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries and statues of St. Gerhardt, vol. Stephen and St. Elizabeth.

In turbulent times of war, about 90 German soldiers were housed in the manor. For fear of drawing the manor into war events, all rare objects were stored in wooden crates and stored in the ground floor and basement. According to the district notary, everything was still in place on February 10, 1945.

Shortly after crossing the front in April 1945, when the village was without leadership and there was confusion, an unknown part of the monuments from the manor house was stolen and part was destroyed. Employees of museums and monument offices took some monuments, especially Japanese and Chinese ceramics, Venetian mirrors, furniture, etc., to the Trnava museum. Most of the monuments remained bricked up in the corridor of the manor. They were taken from there by the staff of the Commission of Education and Culture. These objects are stored in the Museum at the Red Stone. Other monuments were located in the Historical Museum in Bratislava. On February 19, 1946, the District National Committee in Voderady announced that “all the files, the library, etc. took over and took away the Commission for Education ”.

According to the testimonies of two Voderadské kočiš family (the name is available to the editorial office), the last owners of the manor had some of the rare monuments taken by car to the nearby village of Cífer (allegedly 7). There, the Voderady coachmen were replaced by already waiting Hungarian coachmen, who took them to an unknown place. Some sources state that part of the rare monuments was taken from the manor to the railway station in nearby Cífer, from where it traveled by wagons to nowhere. The Voderady manor lost in a very short time all artistic and historical objects of immense value and Voderady lost its great rarity.

In 1946, the manor house was allocated state property. From 1947, it housed the Directorate of State Property, and after its transfer to Modra, the Agricultural Apprentice School was established in the manor house in the early 1950s. In 2005, the school was moved to new premises, leaving the manor house abandoned and dilapidated. It was considered for its use for representative purposes of the Trnava self-governing region, a museum, then it was to be changed to the National Olympic Center. Finally, in 2016, it was sold by the Trnava self-governing region under the price of Bohdal sro It has been under reconstruction since 2017.