In 1736 the Holíč estate was bought by Francis Stephen of Lorraine, who in that same year married the Habsburg heiress Maria Theresa and would later be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The old bastioned fortress at Holíč was rebuilt as a baroque country residence, and a model farm and a manufactory went up around it. For Gbely this meant that the labour and the dues its people owed were now owed to the imperial family — the estate was run as an improving landlord's business, which was better managed than most and still compulsory. Serfdom itself lasted until 1848.V roku 1736 kúpil holíčske panstvo František Štefan Lotrinský, ktorý si v tom istom roku vzal habsburskú dedičku Máriu Teréziu a neskôr sa stal cisárom. Starú bastiónovú pevnosť v Holíči prestavali na barokové vidiecke sídlo a okolo neho vyrástol vzorový hospodársky dvor a manufaktúra. Pre Gbely to znamenalo, že robotu a dávky, ktoré ľudia dlžili, dlžili odteraz cisárskej rodine — panstvo sa viedlo ako podnik osvieteného hospodára, čo bolo lepšie spravované než väčšina a stále povinné. Poddanstvo zrušili až v roku 1848.
