Báb, Nitra District

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Revival Of The Castle In Veľké Uherce Foreigners Take Care Of Slovak Cultural Monuments The castle in Veľké Uherce, Slovakia belongs to the most beautiful cultural heritage of Partizánske district. Its history is connected with Michael Thonet, a famous German furniture manufacturer, who bought the castle more than 200 years ago. When communists came to power in 1948, the castle was confiscated and the Thonet family was persecuted. After many decades the situation has changed and a descendant Flavio Thonet began to take an interest in this cultural monument. „Ten years ago it was possible to buy this castle. I met the mayor of Veľké Uherce to make a deal. I said to him I‘ll give you 1 euro and you’ll give me the castle of my family back. But he didn’t agree about this 1 euro, so I gave him a little bit more euro.“ The historical monument was in a very bad condition at that time. Together with his wife Sophie he decided to start with an expensive renovation from own resources as well as state funds. However, those complicate the whole restoration. Technical work has to be done during warm months, but they get finances from funds in the end of the autumn and are obligated to expend them till a fixed date. For all that they continue in the reconstruction. „Certainly this renovation is not very simple, but we do get some help from the Slovak republic, municipality of Veľké Uherce and we try to put each single money which we get from them, into the castle, facade, for workers etc.“ „We are very glad that this castle has a new owner who takes care of it. Even though the reconstruction is not progressing as fast as we would wish, the good positive thing is that we are doing it anyway. The castle has got a new roof, windows, ¾ of the facade has been done as well as courtyard, and outbuildings have been reconstructed, too. So, now the castle as well as its vicinity look completely different as it did before.“ Also, Thonets have to fight with another problem. Lack of good workers slows working down and some of their irresponsible employees have made the couple sad. The castle still needs a lot of work to be done, therefore they will gladly hire new skillful masons and carpenters, so that the renovation could be going on faster. Renewed historical monuments improves the reputation of Slovakia and attracts tourists from abroad. „Why do people and tourists come to your country, why do they want to see this country? Because of the wonderful landscape and because of many many castles you have. And we are one of those people who restore one castle with all our time, all our money just because of the history of the Thonet family.“ Plenty of Slovakian castles need the restoration. Thanks to descendants of their former owners it is possible to renovate a lot of our cultural monuments. In opinion of Flavio Thonet we should appreciate them. „It’s not important to get a lot of money from Western Europe to build automobile factories etc. This is the heritage of your country and politicians should know that this will stay here and will last a long time.“