A flat village on some of the best soil in Slovakia, with no hill, no gorge and no castle — and one of the most famous country houses in the country standing in a park behind it. Dolná Krupá is where a noble family with a passion for music, and later a countess with a passion for roses, spent two centuries making something remarkable out of very ordinary ground.Rovinatá obec na jednej z najúrodnejších pôd Slovenska — bez kopca, bez tiesňavy a bez hradu — a za ňou v parku jeden z najznámejších kaštieľov v krajine. Dolná Krupá je miesto, kde šľachtický rod so záľubou v hudbe a neskôr grófka so záľubou v ružiach urobili počas dvoch storočí z celkom obyčajnej pôdy niečo pozoruhodné.
Drag the bar, or pick a year, to see what was happening here then.Potiahnite lištu alebo vyberte rok a uvidíte, čo sa tu vtedy dialo.
The Kingdom of HungaryUhorské kráľovstvo
The village first appears in writing in 1113, in the Zobor charter — a document listing the properties of the Benedictine abbey of St Hippolytus on Zobor hill above Nitra, and the oldest surviving written mention of dozens of places in western Slovakia. It is written there as Cromba, and it belonged to the monks. That tells you the settlement existed and paid its dues to an abbey; it does not tell you when anyone first ploughed here, which was certainly much earlier. Learning to read a first mention that way — as a fact about a document — is half of learning medieval history.Prvý raz sa obec v písomnostiach objavuje roku 1113 v Zoborskej listine — v súpise majetkov benediktínskeho opátstva svätého Hypolita na Zobore nad Nitrou, ktorý je najstaršou zachovanou zmienkou o desiatkach lokalít na západnom Slovensku. Zapísaná je ako Cromba a patrila mníchom. Hovorí to, že sídlo jestvovalo a odvádzalo dávky opátstvu; nehovorí to, kedy tu prvý raz niekto zaoral — a to bolo určite oveľa skôr. Naučiť sa čítať prvú zmienku takto, ako údaj o listine, je polovica stredovekých dejín.
By the end of the fourteenth century the land here belonged to Stibor of Stiboricz, King Sigismund's most powerful supporter in this part of the kingdom, who also held Smolenice a few kilometres to the north-west. A village on open plain has nowhere to fortify and nothing to defend itself with, so it was never a place in its own right: it was farmland attached to somebody else's castle. That is the difference between Dolná Krupá and its neighbours in the hills, and it runs through the next five hundred years. What this village has instead of walls is soil.Koncom 14. storočia patrila tunajšia pôda Stiborovi zo Stiboríc, najmocnejšiemu prívržencovi kráľa Žigmunda v tomto kúte krajiny, ktorý držal aj Smolenice pár kilometrov na severozápad. Dedina na otvorenej rovine nemá čo opevniť ani čím sa brániť, takže nikdy nebola miestom sama osebe: bola poľnohospodárskym zázemím cudzieho hradu. V tom je rozdiel medzi Dolnou Krupou a jej susedmi v kopcoch a ťahá sa nasledujúcich päťsto rokov. To, čo má táto obec namiesto hradieb, je pôda.
Through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the ownership of Dolná Krupá broke into pieces, with dozens of noble families holding strips of it at the same time — and among them, at first as one small holder of many, the Brunsviks. Meanwhile the kingdom around them had changed completely: after the defeat at Mohács in 1526 the Ottomans took its middle, and in 1543 the archbishop of Esztergom moved his chapter to Trnava, twenty minutes away, which became the church capital of what was left of Hungary. That was the market this village's grain went to. A place with no history of its own gets its history from the town it feeds.V priebehu 15. a 16. storočia sa vlastníctvo Dolnej Krupej rozdrobilo — naraz tu držali podiely desiatky zemianskych rodín a medzi nimi, spočiatku ako jedna z mnohých, aj Brunsvikovci. Kráľovstvo okolo nich sa medzitým celkom zmenilo: po porážke pri Moháči roku 1526 obsadili Osmani jeho stred a roku 1543 presťahoval ostrihomský arcibiskup svoju kapitulu do Trnavy, vzdialenej dvadsať minút, ktorá sa stala cirkevnou metropolou zvyšku Uhorska. Práve tam putovalo obilie z tejto dediny. Miesto bez vlastných dejín získava dejiny mesta, ktoré živí.
In 1663 the fortress of Nové Zámky fell to the Ottomans and their raiding parties spread across the whole west of the country. Forty years later the uprising of Francis II Rákóczi against the Habsburgs put armies on this plain: on 26 December 1704 his kuruc troops were beaten in a battle outside Trnava, a few kilometres from here. For a village on open ground both wars meant the same thing — there is nowhere to get behind, so what happens is requisitions, marching columns and whatever the soldiers decide to take. The plain that made Dolná Krupá rich is also what left it defenceless.Roku 1663 padli Nové Zámky a osmanské lúpežné oddiely sa rozliali po celom západe krajiny. O štyridsať rokov postavilo povstanie Františka II. Rákociho proti Habsburgovcom vojská priamo na túto rovinu: 26. decembra 1704 podľahli jeho kuruci v bitke pri Trnave, pár kilometrov odtiaľto. Pre dedinu na otvorenom teréne znamenali obe vojny to isté — niet sa kam skryť, a tak prišli rekvirácie, pochodujúce kolóny a všetko, čo si vojaci vzali. Rovina, ktorá Dolnú Krupú živila, ju zároveň nechávala bez obrany.
In 1793–1795 the Brunsvik family rebuilt their seat here in the classicist style — a long, low white range with a columned portico and a triangular pediment, the architecture of the age of reason rather than of defence. Nothing about it is fortified, because by then nothing needed to be: a house on the plain could finally be built for living in. Early in the nineteenth century the family bought up nearly all the run-down noble holdings in the village, so that for the first time in four hundred years Dolná Krupá had a single owner. The parish church of St Andrew went up in 1807–1811.V rokoch 1793 – 1795 prestavali Brunsvikovci svoje tunajšie sídlo do klasicistickej podoby — dlhé nízke biele krídlo so stĺpovým portikom a trojuholníkovým štítom, architektúra veku rozumu, nie obrany. Nič na ňom nie je opevnené, lebo už netreba: dom na rovine sa konečne dal stavať na bývanie. Začiatkom 19. storočia rod vykúpil takmer všetky schátrané zemianske podiely v obci, takže Dolná Krupá mala po štyristo rokoch prvý raz jediného vlastníka. Farský kostol svätého Ondreja postavili v rokoch 1807 – 1811.
Between 1813 and 1819 the garden architect Heinrich Nebbien laid out an English landscape park around the house — clumps of trees, water, long open views and paths that reveal the building slowly — and in 1820–1821 the architect A. P. Rigel remodelled the house itself. These were also the family's musical years. Beethoven dedicated the Appassionata sonata, Op. 57, to Count Franz Brunsvik in 1807 and the Sonata Op. 78 to his sister Therese, who was Beethoven's pupil; their sister Josephine is one of the two leading candidates — with Therese — for the unnamed woman of his "Immortal Beloved" letter of July 1812. Musicologists have argued about which sister for more than a century without settling it, which is a useful thing for a student to know about history in general.V rokoch 1813 – 1819 založil záhradný architekt Heinrich Nebbien okolo kaštieľa anglický krajinársky park — skupiny stromov, vodu, dlhé priehľady a cestičky, ktoré dom odkrývajú postupne — a v rokoch 1820 – 1821 samotnú budovu upravil architekt A. P. Rigel. Boli to zároveň hudobné roky rodu. Beethoven venoval roku 1807 sonátu Appassionata, op. 57, grófovi Františkovi Brunsvikovi a sonátu op. 78 jeho sestre Terézii, ktorá bola jeho žiačkou; ich sestra Jozefína je spolu s Teréziou jednou z dvoch hlavných kandidátok na nemenovanú ženu z jeho listu „Nesmrteľnej milovanej“ z júla 1812. Muzikológovia sa o to, ktorá zo sestier to bola, hádajú vyše storočia a nedohodli sa — a to je samo osebe užitočné poznanie o tom, ako dejiny fungujú.
The revolution of 1848 abolished serfdom in Hungary: the people who had worked the manor's land as subjects became its neighbours, and the estate had to hire and pay for labour like any other farm. The Brunsvik connection to the village faded in the same century — Therese, born in Pressburg (today's Bratislava) in 1775, spent her later life opening the kingdom's first nursery schools from 1 July 1828 and died in Pest in 1861 — and by the 1860s Dolná Krupá belonged to the Chotek family. Countess Mária Henrieta Choteková was born in the manor here on 24 November 1863. The house had changed families, but it was about to become far more famous than it had ever been.Revolúcia roku 1848 zrušila poddanstvo: z ľudí, ktorí obrábali panskú pôdu ako poddaní, sa stali susedia a panstvo si muselo robotu najímať a platiť ako každý iný veľkostatok. Väzba Brunsvikovcov na obec sa v tom istom storočí vytratila — Terézia, narodená roku 1775 v Prešporku, teda v dnešnej Bratislave, otvárala od 1. júla 1828 prvé opatrovne v krajine a roku 1861 zomrela v Pešti — a v šesťdesiatych rokoch 19. storočia patrila Dolná Krupá Chotekovcom. Grófka Mária Henrieta Choteková sa v tunajšom kaštieli narodila 24. novembra 1863. Dom vymenil rod, no práve sa chystal presláviť sa viac než kedykoľvek predtým.
From 1906 Mária Henrieta Choteková planted nearly three hectares of the park with roses, and she did it seriously: in 1910 she bought the entire collection of the breeder Rudolf Geschwind, some two thousand plants, and by about 1914 the rosarium at Dolná Krupá held over six thousand named varieties. That made this village, briefly, one of the great rose collections of Europe, and at a rose congress in Legnica in 1910 she was given the name that stuck to her afterwards — the Rose Countess. She was a leading member of the Association of German Rose Friends and corresponded across the continent. A woman running a scientific collection was not a common thing in Austria-Hungary, and it is part of why she is remembered.Od roku 1906 vysadila Mária Henrieta Choteková takmer tri hektáre parku ružami a robila to vážne: roku 1910 kúpila celú zbierku šľachtiteľa Rudolfa Geschwinda, asi dvetisíc rastlín, a okolo roku 1914 malo dolnokrupské rozárium vyše šesťtisíc pomenovaných odrôd. Táto dedina sa tak na krátky čas zaradila k najväčším ružovým zbierkam Európy a na ružiarskom kongrese v Legnici roku 1910 dostala prezývku, ktorá jej už ostala — grófka ruží. Bola poprednou členkou Spolku nemeckých priateľov ruží a dopisovala si po celom kontinente. Žena, ktorá vedie odbornú zbierku, nebola v Rakúsko-Uhorsku bežná vec — aj preto sa na ňu pamätá.
The First World War wrecked the rosarium. A collection of six thousand varieties is not a monument but a living thing that needs constant hands, and the hands were at the front; there was no money, no labour and no market for roses. By 1918 the empire the estate had belonged to was gone as well, and the village found itself in a new country, Czechoslovakia. Choteková came out of the war with her garden destroyed and her class about to lose most of its land. What she did next is the interesting part.Prvá svetová vojna rozárium zničila. Zbierka šesťtisíc odrôd nie je pamiatka, ale živý organizmus, ktorý potrebuje stále ruky — a ruky boli na fronte; chýbali peniaze, robotníci aj odbyt. Do roku 1918 zanikla aj ríša, ku ktorej panstvo patrilo, a obec sa ocitla v novom štáte, v Československu. Choteková vyšla z vojny so zničenou záhradou a jej vrstva sa chystala prísť o väčšinu pôdy. Zaujímavé je to, čo urobila potom.
Choteková rebuilt the rose garden after the war and turned it into a commercial nursery, publishing sale catalogues — 711 varieties in 1926, 885 in 1929 — and trying to make the collection pay for itself. Two things defeated her. The Czechoslovak land reform, which broke up the great estates from 1919 onwards and reached hers in 1928, took away the land that had funded the house; then the world economic crisis of the 1930s took away the customers. From the middle of the 1930s the rosarium went back to grass, and the most famous garden in Slovakia quietly disappeared.Po vojne Choteková rozárium obnovila a urobila z neho obchodnú škôlku: vydávala predajné katalógy — 711 odrôd roku 1926, 885 roku 1929 — a snažila sa, aby sa zbierka uživila sama. Porazili ju dve veci. Československá pozemková reforma, ktorá od roku 1919 rozdeľovala veľkostatky a k jej majetku sa dostala roku 1928, jej vzala pôdu, z ktorej sa dom financoval; potom svetová hospodárska kríza tridsiatych rokov vzala zákazníkov. Od polovice tridsiatych rokov zarastalo rozárium trávou a najslávnejšia záhrada na Slovensku ticho zanikla.
From 14 March 1939 the village lay in a separate Slovak state allied to Nazi Germany. The Slovak National Uprising of 29 August 1944 was centred on Banská Bystrica and never reached this corner of the country. The front arrived in the first days of April 1945, when the Soviet offensive that took Bratislava on the evening of 4 April crossed this plain, and the manor was looted as the armies passed.Od 14. marca 1939 ležala obec v samostatnom slovenskom štáte spojenom s nacistickým Nemeckom. Slovenské národné povstanie z 29. augusta 1944 malo ťažisko v Banskej Bystrici a do tohto kúta krajiny sa nedostalo. Front prišiel v prvých aprílových dňoch roku 1945, keď sovietska ofenzíva, ktorá večer 4. apríla dobyla Bratislavu, prešla touto rovinou — a kaštieľ pri prechode vojsk vyplienili.
Mária Henrieta Choteková died in the manor on 13 February 1946, aged eighty-three and impoverished, cared for at the end by nuns of the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Love; she is buried in the family mausoleum in the village cemetery. The estate passed to the state, the ground where the rosarium had been was turned over to ordinary agriculture, and in the 1950s the fields around the village went into a farming cooperative, as they did all over the country. The garden did not survive any of that. The house did — because unlike a rose collection, a building can be given a new job.Mária Henrieta Choteková zomrela v kaštieli 13. februára 1946 vo veku osemdesiattri rokov, schudobnená, a v posledných rokoch sa o ňu starali sestry z Kongregácie dcér Božskej lásky; pochovaná je v rodinnom mauzóleu na obecnom cintoríne. Panstvo prešlo na štát, pozemky bývalého rozária premenili na bežnú poľnohospodársku pôdu a v päťdesiatych rokoch skončili polia okolo obce v jednotnom roľníckom družstve, tak ako všade v krajine. Záhrada z toho nevyšla živá. Dom áno — na rozdiel od zbierky ruží sa budove dá dať nová úloha.
The manor is run today by the Music Museum of the Slovak National Museum, with a permanent exhibition on life here under the Brunsviks and the Choteks and a memorial to Beethoven; opening is seasonal, so check before you travel. The park is far larger than the house and does duty as the village's green space as much as a monument. One thing to get straight: the tradition that Beethoven wrote the Moonlight Sonata in this park has no documentary support — that sonata was published in 1802 with a dedication to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, who happened to be a cousin of the Brunsvik sisters, which is very probably how the story grew. Enjoy it as a story, and do not repeat it as a fact.Kaštieľ dnes spravuje Hudobné múzeum Slovenského národného múzea: má stálu expozíciu o živote za Brunsvikovcov a Chotekovcov a pamätník Beethovena, otvorené je sezónne, tak si to pred cestou overte. Park je oveľa väčší než dom a slúži obci ako zeleň rovnako ako pamiatka. A jednu vec si ujasnime: tradícia, podľa ktorej tu Beethoven v parku napísal Mesačnú sonátu, nemá oporu v dokumentoch — tá sonáta vyšla roku 1802 s venovaním grófke Giuliette Guicciardiovej, ktorá bola zhodou okolností sesternicou brunsvikovských sestier, a odtiaľ príbeh veľmi pravdepodobne vyrástol. Berte ho ako príbeh a neopakujte ho ako fakt.
Sources consulted while researching this page. Follow them to read further — and to check us.Zdroje, z ktorých sme pri príprave tejto stránky vychádzali. Kliknite a čítajte ďalej — aj si nás overte.
Sixteen videos for this chapter.Šestnásť videí k tejto kapitole.