At the Mansion

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At the Mansion
A Szirmay-kúria
Az oroszlános kapu, a reneszánsz tornác, A Szirmay és Hollóházi terem
A Szalon, a kóstolóterem, a konyha és a lakosztályok
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The Historic Wine Region of Tokaj

In 1703, the Hungarian Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II presented Louis XIV, King of France, with a gift of wine harvested from his own estate in Tokaj. Thus it was that Tokaji the wine first entered the gates of Versailles, prompting the Sun King to eulogize it as “the wine of kings and the king of wines.” From there, Tokaji went on to conquer all of Europe and become the wine of choice of Tsar Peter the Great, Tsarina Catherine the Great, Frederick II, Voltaire, Goethe, Schubert, and a host of other, less distinguished mortals.Tokaj itself came under official protection in 1737, when a top-secret imperial decree declared it a restricted wine region—the first of its kind in the world. Also as a first, a classification of the region’s vineyards was adopted, in 1772. In recognition of the region’s integrity and legacy of distinct viticulture that had survived for a thousand years, in 2002 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed Tokaj on the World Heritage List as a Historic Cultural Landscape. One of the most significant communities of this historic wine region is the village of Tállya.

Tállya

Nested in the valley of the Szerencs Creek along the historic wine and salt trading road that connected Tokaj to Kassa (today Košice in Slovakia) and Tarnów, the village boasts administrative boundaries established since the Middle Ages. Through the centuries, the lands belonging to the community varied in size between 3,400 and 3,500 hectares, depending on border disputes and the prevailing pattern of pasture ownership. Tállya owes its reputation to the 16th-17th century wine boom in the Tokaj Foothills, although the local viticulture goes back much further than that. Historic sources reveal that, as early as in 1275, village residents paid the bishop a tithe after their production of wine. At the end of the 16th century, the village was acquired by Zsigmond Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania, as part of a dowry. By then, Rákóczi had also gained control over the town of Szerencs, from where he annually sourced some 500-600 casks of wine—quite a considerable quantity—for export to Poland. Around 1650, the ruins of a former fortified castle were converted into a farmstead for Lady Zsuzsanna Lorántffy, the wife of György Rákóczi I, while the church buildings and the town itself were surrounded with a wall. Tállya and its wine enjoyed a time of prosperity through the 17th century owing to a combination of factors, including the periodic replacement of dwellers, a unique blend of ethnicities, the frequent change of ownership in the estates, and the considerable proportion of what were known as “the extraneus”—vineyard property owners from outside the wine region proper. This latter set included quite a few aristocrats from nearby oppodiums, a special type and rank of privileged trading towns, although they were outnumbered by the well-heeled middle-class citizens of towns north of Tokaj in what is today Slovakia, such as Bártfa (Bardejov), Eperjes (Prešov), and Kassa (Košice). In those days, Tállya—boasting oppodium privileges itself—was characterized by a peculiar mix of the aristocratic mindset and an emerging middle class consciousness. The residents, habitually referred to as “the peasants” by the city council and the judge, were clearly guided by a sense of bourgeois self-identity in their own internal affairs. The social stratification of Tállya residents is readily apparent from registrar’s books, which often feature forms of address such as “respected sir” or “the revered,” allowing us to infer that many of the families belonged to the higher classes indeed. These families clearly adopted the manners and habits of “the lords and noblemen that be in Hungary” in their own lives and in the ways they went around their business. The buildings of the village, run-down though they may have become, are now being renovated one after the next, allowing the former splendor and opulence to slowly return to the community that used to be renowned for the homogeneity and high standards of its architecture.Even the farmers’ houses had stone walls and tile roofs. Beyond its remarkable built environment, Tállya is also rich in history and cultural legacy.

Among the famous protestant preachers who worked here, special mention must be made of Gáspár Károli, who first translated the Bible into the Hungarian vernacular. A number of aristocratic families were associated with the village, and it was in the local Lutheran church that Lajos Kossuth was baptized, on September 21, 1802. János Lavotta, the doyen of Hungarian verbunkos, a style of recruitment music, is buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery of Tállya. A storehouse of architectural and cultural tradition, the wine-producing community of Tállya has become a veritable outdoor museum of viticulture and part of our World Heritage. Interestingly, it also happens to occupy the geometric center of the European continent.

The Szirmay Mansion

The village center of Tállya boasts a building nearly four hundred years old. The solid oak, winged entrance door of the former Szirmay Mansion is decorated with a pair of carved lions’ heads. Legend has it that a caress of the beast heads will impart good spirits to visitors and passers-by. The Oroszlános Ház—the “Lion’s Head Inn”—was originally the property of the Szirmays, a noble family with holdings across the Zemplén Hills who shaped and nurtured their narrower quarters and broader environment for almost eight hundred years. They probably built this mansion in the early 1600’s, judging from the window frames, coarsely carved with simple ornamentation, that came to light during the restoration. Also functioning as the farm center for the family’s estate, the building possesses robust construction and ideal orientation, evidencing the affluence and know-how of its owners. With its inlays in the Zopf style—an 18th-century school of architecture and design bridging late Baroque and Neoclassicism—and a fully restored knocker held in a carved lion-head’s jaws, the grand entrance door is the pride of the house. Around 1760, the mansion was enlarged and decorated with columns, brackets, and lunettes. Various features, such as the inner courtyard with its arcades and the arched porch, whose original flagstone paving has survived to this day, make it reasonable to assume that the redesign was the work of Franz Anton Hillebrandt, one of the leading Austrian architects of his day, who also chaired the Hungarian Royal Chamber. The remodeling of the mansion was completed in 1771.

The Szirmay Mansion continued to provide a venue for enlightened and teeming social life until World War II. In the wake of the communist nationalization, the mansion was divided up into several apartments and nearly succumbed to the ensuing decades of decay, its façade dilapidated and only the lion-guarded door remaining to give an inkling of a formerly magnificent residence. The Szirmay Mansion received a second lease on life in 2006 when it reopened its famous doors as the Oroszlános Borvendéglő, the Lion’s Head Inn and Wine Restaurant. The interior design was commissioned from the Körtér Műterem, a Budapest-based studio, under supervision of head designer Lajos Tompos. Relying on the collaboration of diverse specializations in industrial design, arts and crafts, and the fine arts—sculpture, pottery, wood carving, painting, embroidery, as well as glass, textile, furniture, and graphic design—the interior design project was marked by a deep respect for a bygone world and the desire to decipher its message. The results rarely fail to cast a spell on our patrons.

Stepping in the lion-headed door and passing through the Renaissance porch, we first enter the Szirmay Room, which functions as a restaurant and café. This opens into the Hollóházi Room, the damask-clad principal dining room of the mansion. Both of these premises communicate with a fine Salon, which doubles as a cigar room. The vaulted cellar hall underneath the main section of the building has been equipped with a fireplace and now serves as a spacious wine tasting room. Walking past the bottle storage area, we finally arrive at the historic cellar branch. Guests wishing to stay overnight or longer may choose from the three elegant suites of the Inn’s own, or from the 13 double rooms offered next door by the Bártfay Manor, which boasts fine amenities including a bath house.

The lion-headed door

The winged, solid oak door opening into the courtyard is fitted with a knocker held in the jaws of a lion’s head, after which the inn is named. From the door’s Zopf-style ornaments we can infer what the original façade must have looked like. The motif of the sun and the evergreen leaf are a tribute to the special climate of Tokaj. On the street front, an old cart loaded with casks is displayed to commemorate the historic wine trading road that once passed before the house.

The Renaissance porch

The floor of the vaulted porch is paved with the original ancient flagstones, weathered but still magnificent, that were unearthed during the restoration project. The entire mansion was constructed of carved stones bound with mud; the ceiling slab employed hazelnut rods instead of the reed canes more commonly used in construction at the time. The porch columns are also made of stone. The stone window frames, the wrought iron window bars, and the iron entrance door are all fully refurbished original pieces. The stone bench, placed between the two outer columns, was discovered during the civil works that preceded the renovation. Furnished with wicker armchairs, newly made after originals found in the attic, this quaint porch is just the perfect setting in which to have a chat or a sip of wine from spring to autumn.

The Szirmay Room

The first thing that strikes the eye upon entering the Szirmay Room is a brass-screened case that holds some of the finest bottles of wine found in Tokaj. The wall-mounted cabinets around the room display engravings illustrating the wine region. Heating is courtesy of a cast iron stove manufactured in 1865. The colorful ceiling rosettes above the custom-made chandeliers are sculpted in the shape of vine leafs, each in a different color to reflect the turning of the seasons. The original chandelier that served as a model was found in a 150-year-old house elsewhere in Tokaj. The mirror fitted to the marble-topped sideboard is inscribed with lines from a poem praising the Tokaj countryside. The paintings presenting a view of Tállya and picturesque landscapes around the region are the works of István Stark. The superb inlaid hardwood floor is an identical remake of the original.

The Hollóházi Room

Upon special request, we will set the damask-covered tables in this richly appointed dining room with exquisite Hollóházi china. Running round the ceiling here is a decorative motif borrowed from upper-class embroidered tapestries unique to the area. This same motif is echoed by the pattern of the drapes and the tablecloths we use. Standing in one corner is the replica of a Renaissance tile stove. The meticulously restored old sideboard is used as storage for our Hollóházi china. The painting over the door illustrates the vineyards that used to belong to the house.

The Salon and Cigar Room

This room is divided into a dining area and a smoking corner fitted with a leather couch. Under the glass top of the coffee table two original pieces of embroidery are displayed. The crucifix above the bookcase, carved from black walnut, was placed here on the occasion of the house-warming celebration. Hanging on the wall above the couch is a portrait of Pius IV, the 224th Pope, born Giovanni Angelo de Medici, who is credited with the punning ad lib exclamation “Summum pontificem talia vina decent!” upon receiving a gift of Tállya wine from the Bishop of Pécs, who represented Hungary at the Synod of Trent. The pun rests on the double meaning of the Latin word talia—“like this” and, alternatively, “from Tállya.” Thus, Pius’s witty compliment translates as either “It is wines like this that befit a pope,” or “The wines of Tállya befit a pope.” While the episode has been recorded in several sources, it had not become widely known until it was adopted into Hungary’s anecdotal lore from one of the works of none other than Antal Szirmay, the 18th century historian, who devoted much of his scholarly efforts to the discussion of Tokaj’s viticulture and wine-making.

The Tasting Room

This vaulted cellar hall—the largest of its kind in the area—had served as the premises where the harvested grapes were processed until a council decree banished such activities outside the village limits due to the invasion of wine flies. The center of the hall is occupied by an enormous oak table fashioned in the shape of the traditional “aszú bench,” on which botrytised grapes used to be hand-sorted from the rest. The custom-designed oak chairs echo the lion-head motif, as do the coat racks. The chandelier and the torches are decorated with a cannon-wheel motif and a color scheme borrowed from the crest of the Rákóczis. On chilly days, the Tasting Room is heated by a fireplace.

The bottle storage holds wines from the Szirmay estate as well as wines from some of the most highly reputed cellars in Tokaj, all of which are featured on the restaurant’s wine list. The 500-year-old historic cellar branch, currently exposed to a length of 70 m, harbors traditional Gönc-type casks, wooden hods for collecting grapes from the pickers, and a library of old bottled vintages, including an 1940 six puttonyos Aszú, that are also available for purchase.

The kitchen and the suites

The kitchen of the inn is located where the vaulted “smoky kitchen” of the manor used to stand. The guest suites occupying the ground-floor rear wing and the loft of the mansion are furnished with larch furniture custom-designed by Éva Erdeös.