Point of interest - Fertőrákos - Bishop's Palace
The Bishop's Castle of Fertőrákos (also called Zichy Castle after its last great builder) is a one-storey, rococo façade, free-standing building with an inner courtyard. The façade with a balcony has a triangular pediment. Its ornamented hall and chapel are decorated with Baroque wall paintings, while two rooms are decorated with Rococo stucco. The castle was basically the summer residence of the bishops of Győr, but during the Turkish occupation of Győr it also served as a permanent seat. It is located in the centre of the village, next to the road 8526 that passes through the village.
The estate of the bishops of Győr in Fertőrákos had a fortified manor house already in the 14th century. From 1481 to 1486, King Matthias stayed here many times as a guest of Bishop Orban Dóczy (who was also appointed as the chief pastor of the occupied Austrian territory after the king's conquest of Vienna).
The summer residence, which was extended into a castle, became the centre of the bishopric in 1594, when Győr fell to the Turks. After the Turkish destruction in 1683, the transformation of the castle into a baroque-rococo style began. The coats of arms of Bishops György Széchényi, Ágost Keresztély and Ferenc Zichy, who commissioned the work until the mid-18th century, decorate the main façade.
The ceiling of the upstairs dining room is decorated with a fresco depicting the 'Triumph of Faith'. The walls of several rooms are decorated with plaster stucco decorations and paintings of Greek mythological and biblical scenes. The surviving Rococo stoves were made by the Győr master Magner Károly. Bishop János Simor set up the first glass painting workshop in Hungary here, which operated until 1867.
The chapel's vault features an allegorical fresco and the altarpiece depicts the Coronation of Mary and the Holy Trinity. There was once an ornamental garden with fountains around the palace and in front of the façade. Under the building are two large vaulted cellars. One of them had a passageway, now collapsed, which (according to legend) could have led to the woods beyond the stream or as far as Sopron.
- Fertőrákos - Püspöki palota
