About the mansion-house

The last owner Count István Géza Majláth ordered the mansion-house to be built. Those who arrive from Csitár drive past a long, old stable standing on the left at first. On the right in  the huge park you can see the neo- Renaissance style storied mansion-house. Géza Majláth ordered it to be built and architect József Hubert designed it. After the Second World War the nationalized mansion-house was utilised as a pioneer resort and from 1960 it was a Sanatorium for Consumptives.
Most buildings belonging to the one-time manorial centre can be seen today too: opposite the mansion-house there is the bailiff (chief-steward’s house) and near the bend of the main road stands the house of the steward.
There stand the servants’ quarters, the stables and the machine-shops too. The school built in 1900 (nowadays it is the store house of the Palóc Museum) is situated between two blocks of servants’ quarters.
The Count used to travel a lot in  the world, he was an experienced traveller, he collected many things and he was predisposed to the beauty.
Beside his demanding mansion-house he established modern farm-buildings among the then circumstances. He converted the surroundings of the mansion-house into a park with having great pretensions, and he chose the species of trees to be settled with competence. He brought from his journeys not only artefacts but plants, young plantations and shrubs as well. He tried to realise his experiences acquired in the world. He used plans when worked on  the plantations of the trees or established the walking paths of the park. The stock of plants is rich nowadays too, though during the past few decades species of trees not fitting there were planted unfortunately. The inexperienced good-hearted park landscaping was rather harmful to the environment. The existing trees in  the park like Pterocarya fraxinifolia, Picea orientalis, Corylus colurna, maple, oak, Australian pine, Sophora japonica and Robinia pseudoacacia.
Among the lately planted species of trees the more important ones are mountain ash, magnolia and tulip-tree, which can be seen at the entrance.
It was operated until September in 2006 by the Nógrád County Authority as a TB Sanatorium with 60 active and 40 chronic beds.
During the establishment of the new health stucture in the county the institution was functionally consolidated with the Albert Kenessey Hospital in Balassagyarmat and the County Authority decided to sale the building.
The new owner is one of the ventures of FŐNIX-MED Close Corporation, Gárdony Projekt Ltd., which has the intention of keeping it in operation as a public health institution.




About Majláth family

Count György Majláth  (III.)

He was the Main Royal Treasurer then later the Hungarian Court Chancellor, Judge of the Royal Court, Lord of the Supreme Court and the Upper House and he got the Grand Cross of St. Stephen’s order.  He was the parliamentary delegate of Baranya County and after the witenagemote in 1839-1840 he was elected the first deputy-lieutenant in Baranya County. After this witenagemote he was appointed the administrator of Baranya County, which job was very unpopular at that time and he only accepted it for the sake of his political comrade, Count György Apponyi Court Chancellor. He tried to stay away from that work and during that period he went on a study-tour in the western countries of Europe. In 1847 he appeared at the witenagemote as the appointed Lord Lieutenant in Baranya County but he struggled without success together with Széchenyi against Kossuth.
He retired from the storms of the 1848-49 war for independence to his private life and during the absolutism he dealt with his own economic business, he studied and he was for the public assosiations. But he belonged to those who resisted all temptations of the then absolute government and they didn’t exercise a function.
In 1861, after some reluctance he accepted the invitation to the confirmed imperial council in Vienna but merely in order to take firm steps to protect the rights of his country together with his brave and independent conservative partners (Count Emil Dessewffy, Baron Pál Sennyey, Count János Barkóczy) and to form opposition against the Vienna tendencies.
In 1865 he became the head of the Government as The Lord High Chancellor and he was efficient in the matter of solving the Hungarian questions before the coronation and the complete restitution of the Constitution. The Compromise of 1867 conducted to establishing a new Government as a consequence of which Majláth substituted the role of the leading statesman for the judge of the royal court and the chair of the Lord of the Upper House.
Because of his high education and devotion to science he felt attracted to the enjoyment of science and literature. He often attended the sessions of Academy and Kisfaludy-society. He was proud of being not only the director but an honorary member entitled to vote as well.
In 1893 he became the victim of murderers. He was attacked at night at his own place, in the Batthyány-type house in Buda Castle by rovers. He wanted to defend himself, but  in vain. He was choked. His own hussar let his attackers in the house.

Count István Géza Majláth


He was born on  the 14th of January in 1860 in Pécs. He was the third son of György Majláth, the judge of the royal court. He had continued his studies until he was 14 in Buda and in 1874 he joined the Naval Academy in Fiume. After graduating from the Academy in 1878 he truly entered into service as a cadet. He belonged to the naval forces for 16 years and during that period he travelled nearly all over the world by different battleships.
In 1882 he took part in Krivosce (Dalmatia) military expedition serving on  the Albrecht armoured casemate ship. In 1889 he was on service on  the Saida corvette and so he travelled round Africa. From 1890 to 1891, after leaving the naval forces, he went on a private study-tour around the world, he made a tour in India and in the lower parts of South-East India, he went to Java Island, China and Japan, Sandwich Islands, North America and later he travelled home through England, Holland and France. He delivered lectures in Hungarian geographical societies about the voyage, mainly about his adventures acquired in Japan.
He served on Duna monitors for some years and in 1893 he became the commander of the newly armed Szamos monitor.
In 1894 he married Countess Marietta Zichy, Count Nándor Zichy’s daughter. He substituted his naval career for farming and ever since then he managed his estates in Nógrád County on his own.
He was a catholic autonomic representative in Nógrád district of Esztergom Archdiocese. From 1894 he was the member of the Upper House. He was elected a representative by an independent programme in Szécsény district on  the occasion of general elections in 1905. In the September of this very same year he joined people’s party.
On  the occasion of general elections in 1906 he was elected again by the majority of 945 votes in Szécsény district with people’ party programmes.
In addition he was the member of the armed forces and Queen Elisabeth’s sculpture comittee.
He assumed the lord-lieutenancy in Nógrád County in 1917 and he only finished his public works because of the outbreak of revolution whenceforth he retired from politics and until his death in 1933 he didn’t come back to public life.