Last week, we finally arrived in Slovakia where we will spend the holiday season with our family. It's a long drive from Switzerland, and therefore we usually spend one night somewhere in the middle of our journey. There are so many places that we haven't visited in the country yet, so I always try to look for something new to explore. This time, we decided to stay in the south, close to the Hungarian borders. It wasn't too difficult to choose where we would be staying as Galicia Nueva is the jewel of this region and we knew that we wanted to visit this chateau.
Galicia Nueva is situated on a hill above Halič. It was not easy to get there as the roads are bumpy and curvy, and we didn't have that much patience after more than ten hours drive that day, but we managed, and we forgot the difficult trip as soon as we entered the driveway.
The origins of the chateau go back to the 12th century, but the first written mention was done in the 14th century. At that time, there was a stone castle in this place which was owned by the Lossonczy family until the 16th century when it was sold to the Forgach family who lost it after the World War II. The chateau as we see it today was built in the 17th century by the latter family. History
It is interesting that it stayed in each family for such a long time as other castles in Europe were changing the owners more often. Such peaceful history is uncommon in the region.
As many aristocratic families of the 20th century, the Forgach family emigrated abroad before the World War II, but they keep returning to the chateau regularly. Even though they don't own the castle anymore they are fond of the property and they also supported the last renovation which was finished in 2016.
Today, the chateau serves as a hotel, but there are also regular guided tours for public where you can visit historical rooms and learn about the property and its owners.
The chateau has a special place in hearts of local residents, and before the last renovation they worked on the construction themselves to avoid leaving the chateau in decay. The older generation remembered the noble family as welcoming and kind people, walking among ordinary people, and taking good care of the chateau.
Let's explore the chateau grounds!
There is not so much space for parking on the chateau hill, and it is quite far away up the hill from the village, so parking places were created around the chateau. However, we can still walk around as there is a path which is above the ground from where you can see the estate grounds as well as the region. The region is rather flat, so we could see far away. But let's first look at the property...
There are six towers with small balconies around the chateau. Our room was in this tower, but the balcony was in the room next door 😊
There is a wine cellar, a wellness and a gym on this side of the building. There are also some benches around the chateau, so you can relax there in summer.
The reconstruction was done with lots of genuine detail...
There is a large chateau park with many exotic trees and also trees that are older than 200 years. There is also a pond, a tennis court, a church, and a heliport. We didn't walk around as it was slippery, but it must be very pretty in warmer months. Instead, we enjoyed the views of the chateau.
The former Empress of Habsburg dominions Maria Theresa was given a place in front of the hotel...
And now let's enjoy the views! We were so lucky with the weather. It wasn't snowing for a few days, but there was still a bit of snow left and there was not even one cloud on the horizon...
On the far right we can see the city of Lučenec which is more than 8 km away. The visibility was great! I'm sure that we could see Hungary from there too.
A perfect gazebo spot for your morning coffee - I'm sure you can spot some animals from there too!
The English garden in front of the chateau is surrounded by a stone hedge and decorated with many statues. In summer, there are plenty of colorful roses here as well. We have to go there again as I'm curious to see how it looks like when it's warmer.
It's cold outside, so let's see what is waiting for us inside of the chateau...
I like that many features of the chateau remained as they used to be. Usually, there are automatic doors to hotels, but here they kept this beautiful large wooden door which was closed, so it was like we were entering somebody's house. The Christmas decoration was elegant and not exaggerated at all.
When we entered through the main door, we found ourselves in a charmingly decorated vaulted hall which was split into several smaller areas including a living room, a waiting room and a reception area.
There is wooden furniture, many paintings, large chandeliers and wall decorations which make you feel like you were visiting a real chateau instead of a luxury hotel.
There is a period fireplace, marble floors and stone pillars which are the results of the careful renovation.
The most amazing part of the chateau is its former courtyard. Today, it is covered with large glass roof, and there is a restaurant all over the place. The apartments are on the first floor and you can walk around to see old frescoes, paintings, and some artifacts found during the renovation works.
In the middle of the courtyard is a decorated Christmas tree. We sat right next to it for lunch, and together with Christmas carols playing from the speakers and our delicious meal it was the perfect Christmas treat for us.
As I mentioned before, you can visit the chateau with a tour guide as well. However, when you are a guest in the hotel you can visit the special rooms freely, so let's have a private tour of the chateau!
The first and also the most beautiful room that we saw was Župná Sieň or The County Hall. The decoration that we can see here is from 1762, and it's said that it's the most unique wall decoration in Slovakia. The former owner Ján Forgáč was a good friend of the Empress Maria Theresa, and she allowed her painter to come to Halič and create wall frescoes that we can see today.
It's an impressive room with a large table, four big chandeliers and two rococo stoves with golden details. Today, there are smaller wedding receptions organized here, and my husband started to plan our vows renewal already 😊
It feels like we were in the royal court...
I must admit that when we entered the room for the first time I was not sure if we were even allowed to be there. We were walking around the first floor when I saw the door to the County Hall. I simply swiped my room badge and the door clicked and opened! There was nobody else and we were expecting security coming to ask us to leave anytime. After a while we relaxed a bit, and enjoyed the atmosphere.
The colors were so vibrant and it made me wonder how it looked like before the renovation...
Next to the County Hall is a smaller Chamber of the Kingdom of Galicia which is used for smaller groups. I read that it's full capacity is 40 people, but I can't imagine how those people would fit in here.
Let's walk around the first floor...
The chateau was inspired by The Grassalkovich Palace, also known as The Presidential Palace in Bratislava. Those who visited the palace in Bratislava would recognize this staircase.
On the left side are the apartments and on the right side is the courtyard. There are various artifacts placed in the cupboards, and the walls are decorated with original wall paintings of the former owners from the 17th century.
The chateau is a maze of various halls, and there is so much to explore. We opened another random door and found ourselves on the way to the chateau chapel. It's really the perfect place for weddings as you can do everything from the ceremony through shooting to the reception in one place.
Let's look around the chapel!
There are two doors in the chapel which is funny as they are literally next to each other as the chapel is very small. Even though it's so small there is everything what you need for a service. There is an altar, a pipe organ, and of course a Christmas tree.
We have noticed that there was a staircase behind the altar, so we walked up to see it from above. I was tempted to play the pipe organ, but restrained myself as I was not sure if there were security cameras. Well, I'm pretty sure that they were there, but we didn't notice them.
From the chapel we went back to the staircase and went to our room to get ready for dinner.
Today, I will not show you the room as we made a mess before I took photos 😊, but I would like to share a photo of this light switch. It's such a small detail, but they kept it original. In the past, you had to turn the light switch from left to right to turn on the light. They could have replaced it, but they kept the original ceramic switches which I found cool.
After dinner, we admired the chateau at night - well, it was 7 PM, but it's getting dark very early these days.
The courtyard looks pretty at night too. It was a bit strange to walk on the marble floor when in the past there were stones and dirt...
I like the light reflection in the roof...
And we entered the County Hall again to see it with the lights on 😊
The next morning we had the most beautiful sunrise...
And this was the view from our room...
It was amazing!
After our breakfast we spend some time outside, and then jumped in the car as we had another four hours ahead of us. During the check out my husband asked about our vows renewals at the reception which was a big surprise to me as he usually gets excited, but then forgets about that. However, I think that our vows renewals will really happen here 😊
I hope you have enjoyed our trip!
Thank you for reading,
Cheers!
Martina