Keszthely

Thanks to its museums, monuments, historical sights and the elegantly renovated Festetics Palace, Keszthely is among the most frequently visited towns along the shore of Lake Balaton. The city has been a popular holiday resort since the first decades of the 20th century and offers attractive cultural events.

The circumstances of the actual birth of the city are uncertain. However, its name can be traced back to the Roman word 'castellum' meaning fort. The remains of the fort are visible even today.

The trade roads that crossed Keszthely around the 14th century brought rapid development to the town. In 1368 Franciscan friars settled here and built their monumental church on the main square (Fő tér). Today this church is the oldest monument in the city.

In the first half of the 18th century the Festetics family became the sole landowner of the area. Keszthely was the centre of the estate where the core of the family palace was erected from 1745 onwards. Today a protected monument, it is the fourth largest palace in the country and houses the Helikon Palace Museum. Its park is a designated nature reserve.

It was the Festetics family who developed the city hospital, the grammar school and the first European agricultural college, the Georgikon. The farm buildings that once belonged to the school have been converted into a museum that depicts farm management of the time, the life of the servants and the history of the school.

By the end of the 19th century Keszthely had become a bathing resort. Due to its popularity and the sparkling social life the first stone theatre in the city was built (on the site of the open-air theatre). The town centre was redeveloped in a Romantic and Eclectic style that it has preserved to present day.

Following the development of the Balaton shore belonging to the city, the two elegant hotels were built that still exist today: Wave (Hullám) and Balaton.

Keszthely welcomes visitors with a number of restaurants and a range of accommodation, as well as cultural and sport activities - anything from bathing to health farms and from bicycling to horse riding and even flying. The city has several buildings suitable as venues for large conferences.

How to get there:

Keszthely is on the Balatonszentgyörgy-Tapolca railway line which connects the northern and southern shore of Lake Balaton. By train, there are reasonable connections from the Budapest via Székesfehérvár, however, from other major cities in Western Hungary, train connections are rather cumbersome. By bus, Keszthely is served from Veszprém. By car take Route 71.