Tata museums · Architecture and estates
Architecture and estates · since 1776
The Esterházy Palace
original name: Esterházy-kastély
The palace of the counts Esterházy on the shore of the Öreg-tó. It owns nothing of its own — the furniture was plundered after March 1945 — and what stands there now only re-creates the old; the finish of the rooms, however, is original. Here, retreating before Napoleon, the emperor Francis I, who was Ferenc I as king of Hungary, lived for two months and signed the peace with the French on 14 October 1809. Here in 1897 Franz Joseph and Wilhelm II stayed together for the imperial manoeuvres, and from here on 2 May 1849 Görgei sent his troops to retake Buda. And here in 1921 Charles IV, the last king of Hungary, fled after his failed attempt to regain the throne: in this house he was taken into custody, and from it he went into exile. It was built by Jakab Fellner, court architect to the Esterházys, who built half of Tata. The Tata-Gesztes estate came to the family in 1727; the building was begun in 1763 by Count Miklós Esterházy, the Vienna court’s envoy to St Petersburg, and finished under his son Ferenc in the second half of the 1760s; the outside has stayed as it was ever since.
Minimum route
1–1.5 hours
Founded
1776
Ticket
from HUF 3,900
Today
10:00–18:00
What to see
The dolls’ house of the counts’ daughters — a scale model of the palace itself, and beside it the sons’ lead soldiers, drawn up on an exact relief of the very imperial manoeuvres held at Tata. The great dining hall with restored wooden panelling and portraits of the family’s forebears; then the salon on those Esterházys who served in diplomacy. The library, the countess’s rooms, the count’s rooms on the ground floor. The tower room and the Tent Room — named after their wall painting; there too is a model of the palace theatre, and in the next room a short film about the musical past of the house: a standing orchestra was kept from 1806. All of it goes under the one name The Island of Peace (A béke szigete).
Minimum route — 1–1.5 hours for the essentials
An hour and a quarter.
- 25 minutesthe great dining hall with the family portraits and the salon on the Esterházy diplomats.
- 20 minutesthe countess’s rooms, the library and the children’s rooms with the dolls’ house and the lead soldiers.
- 20 minutesthe count’s rooms, the tower room and the Tent Room, the model of the palace theatre.
- 10 minutesthe film on the musical past of the house.
Reference
About the museum
Since 2021 the palace has been in the care of the state heritage office. The furnishing is a re-creation after models of the period, while the finish of the rooms is its own: stucco, carved panelling, wall painting and stoves of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. One may go round without a guide, using the visual guide device.
Getting in
How to get there
The palace stands on Hősök tere by the south shore of the Öreg-tó, next to the castle.
Opening timeschecked on 19 August 2026, the museum website
closed for the day
| Mon | closed |
| Tue–Sun today | 10:00–18:00 |
last admission 1 h before closing
In summer Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, in winter 9:00–17:00. The box office closes an hour before the end. Open on national holidays.
Ticketschecked on 19 August 2026, the museum website
When to go
In summer and at weekends there can be a queue for the visual guide; on a weekday morning there is none. In winter the palace closes an hour earlier.
Contacts
Of interest to children
The dolls’ house and the terrain with the lead soldiers are made so that children stay at them a long while. There is a separate treasure hunt through the palace for 1,500 Ft.
· No. 95