Name of Monument:

Archbishop’s Palace of Veszprém (since 1993)

Also known as:

Episcopal palace of Veszprém

Location:

Veszprém, Nyugat-Magyarország / West Hungary, Hungary

Date:

1733; 1763; 1765–1776

Artists:

Architect: Jakab Fellner (Jakab Fellner of Fellenthal; 1722–1780); stonemason: Vencel Hauensteiner; painter: Johann Cimbal (1722–1795)

Denomination / Type of monument:

Secular architecture, residential palace

Patron(s):

Ignác Koller Nagymányai Bishop of Veszprém and Comes (Leader of) the Comitatus (administrative county) of Veszprém (1762–1773); Ferenc Koller Nagymányai; Diocese of Veszprém

History:

The Diocese of Veszprém, the first and oldest diocese in Hungary, was founded by Géza, Grand Prince of the Magyars, between 966 and 1000. The Comitatus (administrative county) of Veszprém had maintained a bishop's residence since medieval times, but it was confiscated and used for military purposes during the Turkish wars. During this time the bishop resided mainly in Sümeg, but the building there was demolished in 1713 so, in 1733, Bishop Ádám Acsády built a new two-storey palace.
The palace was never used by Bishop Acsády's successor, Ignác Koller Nagymányai, Bishop of Veszprém and Comes (Leader of) the Comitatus of Veszprém, for he considered it inadequate, and entrusted Jakab Fellner – recommended to him by his contemporary Bishop Károly Esterházy – with the design of a new and more fitting bishop's palace in 1763.
At first, to cut costs, the bishop considered erecting the palace on the flat plot below the Castle and not on the site of the medieval bishop's palace on Castle Hill. In the end, though, he decided that Castle Hill was a more fitting and elegant site for the bishop's palace and so the building was erected there, with its eastern facade on the edge of a cliff. While Fellner supervised, the construction team was led by master stonemason, Vencel Hauensteiner. The foundation stone was laid in 1765, and the building was complete by 1772 except for the interior decoration.
Bishop Ignác Koller lived long enough to move into the palace, but after his death, his brother, Ferenc, a counsellor of the court chamber, requested that Queen Maria Theresia grant him permission to continue construction at the bishop's expense. The palace was consecrated in 1776.
In 1993 the Archdiocese of Veszprém received the Episcopal (Metropolitan) title, and the Bishop's Palace was renamed the Archbishop's Palace.

Description:

The two-storey palace has a U-shaped layout. Its facade stands on the edge of a cliff on Castle Hill and faces east. Fellner incorporated the remains of the medieval palace and the 18th-century palace into the south wing of the new building, and built the north wing to match it. The two wings are linked by the east wing, which is actually the main wing of the palace. The U-shaped layout chosen by Fellner uses the limited space afforded by the narrow building plot on the edge of Castle Hill very effectively.
A driveway leads to the central risalit of the main facade crowned with a broad balcony with wrought-iron railings. Above the balcony on the central axis of the middle risalit, there is a very high arched window embraced by pilasters and pillars, and crowned with a tympanum framing Bishop Ignác Koller's coat of arms. An urn is mounted on the attic above the tympanum in between two putti surrounded by decorative garlands. The two side-wings are heavily projected; their facades separated by mouldings and articulated by three square-shaped windows on the first floor, and three arched windows on the ground floor. Above the windows, in the middle, are tympanums with coats of arms in their mid-sections. The windows either side are decorated with garlands underneath their drip mouldings. On the eastern facade at the rear of the building, the central risalit juts out forcefully. The ground-floor risalit is articulated by an arcade, which has a broad balcony above it with wrought-iron railings. Above the three arched windows of the first floor, a tympanum can be seen.
At the top of the Baroque central stairway leading from the entrance hall, there is a magnificent suite of rooms decorated with works of art. Some of the furniture, decorative and everyday objects are from the 18th century, others are late Renaissance or 19th century. The fresco, Holy Trinity with Adam and Eve and the Ancient Fathers in the bishop's private chapel, is the work of Johann Cimbal (1772); it is an Allegory of Salvation, Faith and Crucifixion that leads to the redemption of mankind. The main hall on the first floor (used as a dining hall, and today as a reception hall) has walls decorated with the paintings by Cimbal also (including the Four Seasons of 1772). As of 1768, Cimbal received several large-scale commissions in the Hungarian Kingdom, including altarpieces and frescoes for several churches, and the murals of the Bishop's Summer Residence in Sümeg (landscapes from 1769–1771).
The walls in one of the reception rooms are decorated with a sequence of engravings covered with glass, purchased by Bishop Ignác Koller in Paris in 1772; the glass was produced at Bakony glass foundry. The walls of the bishop's private library are covered with 18th-century wood panelling and furnished with a series of portraits of the Bishops of Veszprém by various artists.
The Episcopal Library, founded by Bishop Márton Padányi Bíró, was formerly housed in the Bishop's Palace in Sümeg. Ignác Koller continued to expand the library collection in Veszprém.

The Archbishop’s (former Bishop’s) Palace was designed by Jakab Fellner by order of Bishop Ignác Koller. The palace was built between 1765 and 1776. The chapel and the main hall of the building are decorated with frescoes by Johann Cimbal.

How Monument was dated:

Based on written and visual sources.

Selected bibliography:

Pehm, J., Padányi Bíró Márton veszprémi püspök élete és kora (The Life and Times of Márton Padányi Bíró, Bishop of Veszprém), Zalaegerszeg, 1934.
Petrák, M., Acsády Ádám veszprémi püspöksége (1725–1744) (Bishop Ádám Acsády [1725–1744]), Veszprém, 1949.
Garas, K., Magyarországi festészet a 18. században (Painting in Hungary in the 18th century), Budapest, 1955, pp. 60–62, 211–212.
Körmendy, J., “A veszprémi püspöki uradalom veszprémi javainak kamarai összeirása az 1773. évi széküresedés idején” (“Council Records of the Possessions of the Episcopal Domain at the Time of the Vacant Episcopal Seat in 1773”) in: A Veszprém megyei múzeumok közleményei (Bulletin of the Museums of Veszprém County), 17, Szerk, Töröcsik, Z., Uzsoki, A.,Veszprém, 1985, pp. 333–335.
Cimbal, J., Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, 19, München–Leipzig, 1998, pp. 228–229.
Igaz, R., “Püspöki metszetgyűjtés a 18. század második felében. A veszprémi és a szombathelyi püspöki paloták metszetkabinetjeinek képjegyzékei” (“Collection of Episcopal Engraving in the second half of the 18th century: Image Registry of the Engraving Cabinets of the Bishop's Palaces in Veszprém and Szombathely”) Műemlékvédelmi Szemle, XII, 2002/1, 113–34.
Igaz, R., “Bischofspalastbau und Interieurkunst in der Epoche des klassizisierenden Spätbarock. Die Bischofspaläste in Veszprém und in Szombathely” Acta Historiae Artium. An art-historical Journal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2004.

Citation of this web page:

Terézia  Bardi "Archbishop’s Palace of Veszprém (since 1993)" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;BAR;hu;Mon11;19;en

Prepared by: Terézia BardiTerézia Bardi

SURNAME: Bardi
NAME: Terézia Anna

AFFILIATION: National Trust of Monuments for Hungary

TITLE: Art Historian, Vice Director for Research at The National Trust of
Monuments for Hungary; MWNF DBA local co-ordinator (Hungary), author
and copy-editor

CV:
Terézia Bardi, Vice Director for Research at the National Trust of Monuments for Hungary since 2004, was awarded her MA in History and History of Art at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. After a period of fellowships mainly in Italy, Terézia gained her PhD from the Faculty of Art History at the same university for her thesis Presentation and Representation – the European Reception of the Liberation of Buda in 1686: Feast and Public Opinion. Her main fields of research are 17th-and18th-century Baroque and Rococo: the spectacles, festival decorations and associated iconography – including theatre productions of the period – and interior decoration of historic houses. Since 1988, she has edited a number of art historical books that include some on Oriental art and architecture. She is MWNF DBA’s local (Hungarian) co-ordinator, author and copy-editor.
Copyedited by: Terézia BardiTerézia Bardi

SURNAME: Bardi
NAME: Terézia Anna

AFFILIATION: National Trust of Monuments for Hungary

TITLE: Art Historian, Vice Director for Research at The National Trust of
Monuments for Hungary; MWNF DBA local co-ordinator (Hungary), author
and copy-editor

CV:
Terézia Bardi, Vice Director for Research at the National Trust of Monuments for Hungary since 2004, was awarded her MA in History and History of Art at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. After a period of fellowships mainly in Italy, Terézia gained her PhD from the Faculty of Art History at the same university for her thesis Presentation and Representation – the European Reception of the Liberation of Buda in 1686: Feast and Public Opinion. Her main fields of research are 17th-and18th-century Baroque and Rococo: the spectacles, festival decorations and associated iconography – including theatre productions of the period – and interior decoration of historic houses. Since 1988, she has edited a number of art historical books that include some on Oriental art and architecture. She is MWNF DBA’s local (Hungarian) co-ordinator, author and copy-editor.
Translation by: Judit Harangozó, Philip Barker
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: HU 19