In 1871 Mikuláš Konkoly-Thege, who owned the estate here, built an observatory in his own park — and not a gentleman's toy, but one of the first astrophysical observatories in Europe. The work done here was on the light of stars, on the Sun and on meteors, and it was published where other astronomers would actually read it. He set up a meteorological station beside it, and the weather has been recorded at Hurbanovo without a break ever since. On 18 May 1899 he handed the whole thing — buildings, instruments and grounds — over to the state, on one condition: that it stay in Hurbanovo. That single condition is the reason the town still has an observatory today.V roku 1871 si Mikuláš Konkoly-Thege, majiteľ tunajšieho panstva, postavil vo vlastnom parku hvezdáreň — a nie panskú hračku, ale jedno z prvých astrofyzikálnych observatórií v Európe. Skúmalo sa tu svetlo hviezd, Slnko aj meteory a výsledky vychádzali tam, kde ich astronómovia naozaj čítali. Vedľa hvezdárne zriadil meteorologickú stanicu a počasie sa v Hurbanove zaznamenáva odvtedy bez prerušenia. 18. mája 1899 celý majetok — budovy, prístroje aj pozemky — daroval štátu s jedinou podmienkou: že observatórium zostane v Hurbanove. Práve vďaka nej tu hvezdáreň stojí dodnes.
