Dunamente Turisztikai Térség

Watermills in Tata

Besides Tata Castle and and the lakes one of the most important factors of urban development and settlement character is the number of mills operating on the water network, as a result Tata is called the city of mills - based on a map made in the early 1830s, the town boasted a total of 15 working mills. Of these, there were 6 rock mills (Komárom, Cseke, Öreg-, Ferenc-, Hámon- and New-Rock), in which the baize was milled, and the rest milled flour (Burgundy, Baumeister, Cifra, Hencz, Janko, Henkz, Janko, Hencz, Jankó, Nepomucenus, Old, Baker and Szőnyi Mill). In the 1930s, only four of them - the Cifra, the Nicholas, the Pörörke and the Wéber - operated. The end of the declining craft was brought by the coal mining of Tatabánya in the 1950s and the associated karst water, which led to the loss of resources and the shutdown of water mills. A mill building, which can be visited, is located in Alkotmány Street, called Nepomucenus, also called Gödör or Völgyi Mill, owned by Jakab Fellner. It was named after the statue of St. John of Nepomuk standing in an arched niche decorated with hood-moulding, on the facade of the mill. Today it is the German Nationality Museum.

Kossuth Square - Tata

The space was originally used as a market and trade fair. Its name was changed several times: from the beginning of the 19th century it was called the Market Square and the Main Square and after the death of Lajos Kossuth in 1894, it was named Kossuth Square in 1895. The official opening of the renovated square was on December 5, 2015. The space was developed in the spirit of preservation of historical monuments. Sights in the square:
The statue of Mary Immaculata (the Blessed Virgin) in the middle of the square was made by Antal Schweiger, created around 1780, stands on top of a globe, with her left hand on her heart, on a 17-meter-high obelisk based on a triangular pedestal.
The Holy Cross Roman Catholic parish church, designed by Anton Pilgram and Jakab Fellner, rises above the square, in Louis Seize  style.
Next to the town hall is the Fischer House, a baroque, mansard-roofed house built at the end of the 18th century. Farkasházy Fischer Mór, the Herend porcelain manufacturer was born in the building on March 25, 1799. Mór Fischer and his dearest son, Dezso Herend, returned to the ancient Tata family house in 1875, and they also set up a porcelain workshop.

Liberty Square - Komárom

The history of Liberty Square is closely linked to the history of Komárom. The Trianon decision divided the city on two banks of the river. New buildings were needed for an independent city administration, public administration and public education. Two imposing buildings, the Civic School and the Town Hall, dominating the eastern and western walls of Freedom Square, were erected during the extensive construction work. The statue of the World War Memorial, which forms the centre of the square, was created by János Zsákodi-Csiszér. It is one of the central buildings of the Palace of the Jewish Community. The bronze monument to the citizens of Komárom who died in the First World War dates from 1923 and shows a soldier wounded in battle. Behind the statue are 8 Roman sarcophagi.
On the left side of the square is the neo-baroque Town Hall, built in 1929, with plans designed by Budapest architects Ágoston Grestenberger and Károly Árvé. The tympanum of the façade bears the ornately carved coat of arms of the Free Royal City of Komárom. The basement of the town hall houses the collection of Hungarian maritime history by Ferenc Juba.
On the other side of the square is the Petőfi Sándor Primary School. It was built in 1926/27 under the direction of master builder Béla Marshall according to the plans of Gyula Walder, professor at the University of Art and Design. The two-storey neo-baroque building was named after Sándor Petőfi in 1952.
Gáspár Alapy, the former mayor of Komárom, was born in North Komárom in 1880. After completing his studies, he began working in the town hall of North Komárom in 1907. In 1921 he moved to South Komárom, where he worked in the city administration as deputy mayor from 1922 and as appointed mayor from 1928. During his tenure, the southern part of the town developed enormously. He is credited with the construction of the Town Hall, the Finance Palace, two churches, as many prayer houses, three schools, the police headquarters, the tax office, a finance barracks, a railway estate and a beach resort. A public library, a cinema and a private music school were opened. Komárom developed from a settlement with seven streets to a thriving small town with 53 streets. During his term as mayor, the number of inhabitants tripled. Thanks to his popularity and in recognition of his merits, he became mayor of the reunited Komárom on 15 July 1939.

Klapka Square - Komárno

Today's square was created at a place of a small lake, which was formerly protecting by the walls of the medieval city. A marketplace was created there later. On the north side of it, at the end of the 17th century, there was a town hall for council meetings. In 1725 it was rebuilt. After major damage caused by the earthquake in 1763, it was restored in 1766 and supplemented in the following year by a fire guard tower. After a fire in 1848, the building was renovated again, but it was necessary to enlarge it, so in 1875 it was updated by a new watchtower, creating a town hall in the way we know it today. In the window of its tower, from the New Year's Eve 1999 between 10 am - 4 pm, a figure of a hussar from 1848/49 appears in two-hour intervals and plays a song written for the hero Klapka.

Europe Courtyard – Komárno

At the end of the 20th century, the Europe Courtyard was established in connection with the Zichy Palace. The Courtyard presents the architecture of 45 countries and regions, the design and construction of which are named after the architects Nándor Litomericzky, Péter Takács and Péter Varga. The inner park of the Zichy Palace is connected to the new square by the Matthias Gate. The gate is one of the dominant structures of the square, which with its shape and colors evokes buildings built during the reign of King Matthias.

The west side of the square is bordered by the Estonian, Finnish, Belgian, Dutch, Frisian, Norwegian, Danish, English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Houses. There is also a House in San Marino, a Romanian, a Czech and a Slovak House. The German House is the only one that is not new, but the oldest building in the city. In the courtyard there is a Sculpture gallery “Europe”, which presents the monarchs and famous historical figures. From time to time, outdoor events await those interested in the cozy square, but it is also worth visiting the space during a quieter period, because it exudes a great atmosphere.

The Europe Courtyard in Komárno belongs to modern monuments in the Danube Region. It is an unusual collection of buildings typical of many European countries.

Országgyűlés (Parliament) Square – Tata

 On the square there is a belfry, one of Tata’s symbols. The tower is the joint work of Jakab Fellner and his close co-worker József Éder, the famous local carpenter, from 1763. The speciality of the construction is that the wooden frame was built without the use of a single iron nail. In the 1930’s the edifice, originally meant to function as a bell tower, was renovated and fitted with clocks at the initiative of and funded by Zoltán Magyary, a local administrator. Today passers-by are enchanted by chimes at five minutes before every full hour. Among the musical pieces to be heard is a part of Pál Esterházy’s collection of cantatas called Harmonia caelestis.

The square acquired its name in commemoration of the national assembly held here on the second of July, 1510, for in that year King Ladislaus II and his court, while fleeing from the plague, had moved from the royal seat of Székesfehérvár to Tata Castle. The king summoned the barons and nobles of the country in order to discuss an alliance against the Turks and Venice in the presence of the envoys of the Holy Roman emperor, the King of France, Venice and the Pope.

Of the buildings around the square worth mentioning is the block of János Vaszary Általános Iskola (elementary school) behind the belfry. Apart from the school, originally it housed the township’s administrative offices as well. Today it also incorporates the building of the one-time military barracks built in 1867. The institution bears the name of the painter János Vaszary, who found pleasure in staying in Tata many times between 1912 and 1938. The villa of one of the most renowned representatives of modern Hungarian painting, the former teacher of the College of Fine Arts is to be found in Művész utca.

Kristály (Crystal) Hotel and the Old Town Hall – Tata

 The Kristály (Crystal) Imperial Hotel is Hungary’s oldest hotel in operation. The original building, designed by Jakab Fellner as an inn in the mid-18th century, only had a ground floor, and was called Szarka (Magpie) Inn after its tenant. At the end of the 19th century the owners, the Esterházy family, had another storey raised on the building, which bore their name thereafter. It acquired the present name in 1945.

The first known literary mention of the inn relates to the poet, writer, translator and language reformer Ferenc Kazinczy who, en route from Buda (then Hungary’s capital) to Vienna had an accident and had to spend eight days there. During the revolution and war of independence of 1848-9 the inn served as the commanding officer’s headquarters, and it was from here that commander-in-chief Artúr Görgey left for the siege of Buda on the 3rd of May 1849. Apart from the above-mentioned visitors, the hotel welcomed many more notable guests, for instance the writer Mór Jókai, the actress Lujza Blaha, the actor Gyula Kabos, and the politician and statesman Otto von Habsburg, the last heir to the Habsburg throne. Although the four-star hotel has been renovated, it has preserved the traditional architectural features in many details. From the inner courtyard you can clearly see that the hotel complex can be divided in two parts. The three baroque-style wings of the old hotel are complemented by the newly built fourth wing. However, the modern design and the material of the latter do not contrast with the other parts dating back to several centuries; on the contrary, they are in perfect harmony with them. If you look around in the courtyard, you will catch sight of the ornamental motifs arranged according to geometric patterns. They reflect the typical features of 18th-century baroque gardens in this unique setting. The main role of the baroque gardens of the age, unlike that of the English landscape gardens, was the representation of luxury, splendour and power, rather than creating a setting for the leisure time programmes spent in an environment imitating natural conditions. When designing such gardens, the central idea was the creation of an image of man-made order imposed on the landscape. In the baroque gardens every plant was meticulously pruned, first in symmetrical geometrical patterns, and later in various forms. In the gardens there appear mazes and marble fountains. That is the reason why you can see a white marble ornamental fountain in the middle of this courtyard.

To the right, on the opposite side of Erzsébet utca (street) there stands a building which used to serve as the town hall of the settlement called Tóváros. It was built by the contributions of the residents in 1924. After 1938, following the unification of Tata and Tóváros, the building became a health centre. It was recently renovated and now it houses a service centre and administrative offices.