The stones speak
The castle was built by Jenő Bory (1879-1959), a sculptor and architect, a professor at the Budapest College of Fine Arts and the Budapest University of Technology, based on his own plans and imagination. He worked mostly alone, relying on both hands, with at most occasional help. He was a trained architect, yet he was not guided in his work by specific engineering drawings, but rather by his inspiration and adaptation to specific terrain conditions. The slowly growing walls, the shapes of the towers, the spaces they embraced were the result of the same artistic vision as the sculptures.
How it started ...
The castle land, on which only a wine cellar originally stood between vineyards and fruit trees with its press house (1), was bought in 1912. He then expanded the press house into an apartment and also built a summer studio above it. The place was intended as a family holiday home. However, further construction was hampered by the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
Jenő Bory's battalion was commanded on the Serbian battlefield. In 1915 he moved to Sarajevo, where he was commissioned to build a monument to the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife. A grandiose plan unfolded in his mind; designed the monument at the site of the assassination, the Franz Ferdinand Votive Church and the Sophia Youth Home.
Model of Jenő Bory on the church of Franz Ferdinand (1915)
Although the plans were completed, due to the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the war, only a monument built at the site of the assassination was completed at the bridgehead of the Miljačka River, which brought material and artistic success and recognition to the artist. In fact, it established his career and the construction of Bory Castle.
The monument at the Latin bridge over the river Milječka (1916)
Forty summers
So he started building the castle in 1919 after the war. Whenever he could, he worked on it, his creativity would not let him rest. He spent the school year in Budapest, so the castle was built up and expanded summer by summer, this, the main work of his life.. He created terraces on the hillside and experimented with new concrete engineering solutions with a few of his students, while creating sculptor-inspired buildings. In 1934, the castle was also opened to the public, occasionally hosting music and dance evenings, where smaller Bory works were hosted as a raffle prize among the guests. The entirety of the proceeds were used by the artist couple to build the castle.
Jenő Bory worked obsessively between the two world wars, even when he was not building the castle. He was a sought-after artist, a series of public sculptures and monuments came out of his hands. Plaster models of some of these can be seen under the arcades of the hundred-column courtyard. (2)
Meanwhile, the idea of Bory Castle also began to take shape. The master painfully experienced that the legacy and collection of contemporary artists disperse after their death. Bory Castle will also be good for this: it will provide an exhibition space for his and his wife’s works as well as his art collection. Most of the collection can be seen in the large studio that defines the main façade of the castle. (3)
Jenő Bory was happy to experiment with new materials, such as the revolutionary concrete at the beginning of the century. "If there hadn't been concrete, there wouldn't have been Bory Castle." he used to say. The 10 cm concrete-shell dome of the Church of the Heart of Jesus, built in Székesfehérvár in 1910, and the 4.2 m high concrete fountain built in the castle courtyard in 1913 are attached to his name. In the castle as well, everything he could, he made of the quartz concrete he preferred: columns, railing elements, domes, garden artefacts, door and window cases, but even sculptures adorning the castle. In the arcades of the hundred-column courtyard, concrete statues of great figures of Hungarian history defy the weather. (4)
The Courtyard of the Hundred Columns (1959)
"Castle of Eternal Love"
The romance of the castle is defined by the artistically designed resting places, well-kept gardens and tower rooms, which are defined by the love of the Bory artist couple. This is evidenced by the statues of the lady of the castle, the love poems written for her, and the “castle chapel” itself (5). A romantic Russian named the castle "Zamok vecsnoj ljubvü", the castle of eternal love, which became known as the title of a Russian-language publication.
The destruction of the II. world war did not spare the castle either. Headless statues, dilapidated tower caps, gaping holes everywhere. His eldest grandson, who with the master listened in the basement of the castle to the whistling, crashing of the cannonballs and the collapse of the walls, remembers what Jenő Bory said when he heard them: "He pulled himself out and said determined: I will rebuild!" And he did so. After the war, the 67-year-old artist took the mason's spoon into his hands and rebuilt his castle.
So what is Bory Castle? In terms of its structure, it is nothing more than a sculptural work of art that takes on architectural forms and dimensions. On the other hand, it speaks to Jenő Bory’s private mythology. The master, who was born and lived in an age that didn’t favor creative arts very much, retreated here to build, and then, after the devastation of the war, rebuilt a place where one could breathe more freely and deeply, and rest. This is his heritage for Székesfehérvár, the residents of the city and all the visitors.
The castle is still in the maintenance of the family. After the death of Jenő Bory, his children, then his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and now even the next generation became involved in the maintenance of the castle. The descendants preserve the memory of the master with love and pride and are happy to see every visitor!