The countess of roses
By katarina
11 comments
Today I visited baroque manson at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, once famous European rosarium founded by countess Maria Henrieta Chotek. For several recent years a local manager of museum is organising so called Festival of roses. Still not on the level of similar Austrian festival, but at least something.
Take a seat and have a look.
This is the manson at Dolna Krupa. Once also home for Ludwik van Beethoven, when progressing deafness caused his economic and social isolation and troubles at the Vienna Court. Family Brunswick opened him their house and even bought him a piano. (Famous scene from the American film “Immortal Lover”).
According to world experts in music history, this was the place where he started to compose his Moonlight Sonata.
At the back entrance this folk artist carved his little wooden things and posed for me.
His advertisement to me was “I make whatever for euros and children for free”. Not very polite, but very typical for self-confident artists.
And now we are inside the manor house. Breathe deeply – very nice scents-and watch:
Nice view to the park…
Maybe it looked like this at the time of a sad countess…
Place, from which we were followed by her sad eyes.
She was well-known expert in roses and their breeding in Austrian-Hungarian monarchy and France. She founded the largest rosarium in Austrian-Hungarian monarchy (just here) and during the WW I she voluntered as a nurse in a field hospital. It was said, she had a child with a common man. This legend was never proved. Nevertheless, she never married and tried to live common life with common people. Wellknown rosarians such as Peter Lambert, Wilhelm Kordes, Hermann Kiese, Johannes Böttner und Rudolf Geschwind were proud of being her friends and appreciated not only her competence but her unselfish help. In 1909 Pope Pius X awarded her a diploma of appreciation.
She was beautiful, wasn´t she?
Unfortunately, her rosarium was destroyed during the WW II and then by communists. When they took power in 1947, she was one night robbed by her own servants and in a year died in a monastery.
There is a plan – still just a plan – for renewal of her once so famous rosarium…
Initiator is Rosa Club Slovakia.
And some final glimpses…
Ah! I forgot. At the end of the day I bought a rose bush. Again. I could not help myself. I am addicted to flowers. Pray for me :)
10 Jun, 2012
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Comments
Thank you, Sharnford - the best place for Moonlight sonata :)
10 Jun, 2012
A amazing blog and such beautiful flowers. It was a great surprise to learn that Beethoven lived for a time in such a mansion! Thank you for sharing this with us.
10 Jun, 2012
Thank you Katarina. We are all so lucky to be able to buy and enjoy Roses in a land of peace.
11 Jun, 2012
Hello, Steragram.
For many years this part of his history was neglected, as it cast not very nice light on aristocracy in Vienna, how they behaved to him when he started to lose hearing. Also, he started to drink. This place became known -paradoxically - thanks to Japan lovers of classic music. They started to link the Immortal Beloved letter to this place.
The Immortal Beloved (German "Unsterbliche Geliebte") is the mysterious address of a love letter which composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on 6–7 July 1812 in Teplitz (now Czech republic). The unsent letter was found in the composer's estate after his death, after which it remained in the hands of Anton Schindler until his death, was subsequently willed to his sister, and was sold by her in 1880 to the Berlin State Library, where it remains today. The letter is written in pencil and consists of three parts.
Since Beethoven did not specify a year, nor a location, an exact dating of the letter and identification of the address was speculative.The three candidates favored by most contemporary scholars are Antonie Brentano, Therese Brunswik and Josephine Brunswik. Josephine was the older of sisters and they both were Beethoves pupils when he was staying at this place for several summers. Older Josephine was taking care for LB and according to some HUngarian papers they secretley engaged but then the family of Brunswick changed this bond, as Beethoven thanks to the disease had afterwards never got serious employment at the Royal court. And that was condition of the family for Beethoven if he wanted to merry a woman from aristocracy, although poor aristocracy. Josephine never married and kept contact with Beethoven until his death.
11 Jun, 2012
Hi Diane,
you are right. Nevertheless, sadly to say, we did not start neither WWI nor WWII.
11 Jun, 2012
very lovely place Kat, and she is very pretty it's such a shame the rosarium was destroyed...
11 Jun, 2012
Hi, SL :) Well, some people build, some people destroy. Even now.
11 Jun, 2012
Very interesting Katarina - not something I've ever heard before. Don't you sometimes wish that people who were sometimes unappreciated in their lifetimes could know how much their work is loved nowadays? Fancy him having an unrequited love, poor man.
11 Jun, 2012
Steragram, if you are interested, look at the film Immortal Beloved. It is great film, lot of music there...
Here is just video from the scene, where family Brunswik bought special piano for Beethoven and already deaf musician played on it. My favourite scene from this film - and final one :))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITz7jYDZI_0
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59hhDE9ObxY&feature=related
12 Jun, 2012
What a nice letter, isn´t it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8nqlMuBVuE&feature=related
12 Jun, 2012
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What a Beautiful place
10 Jun, 2012