Interesting facts

In 1620 the castle at Marchegg was transferred to the ownership of the royal family Pállfy of Erdöd. They counted among the Catholic elite in the west of Hungary and felt a debt to the emperor; thus they pursued a role as protectors of Western Christianity. From within their ranks, officers and officials were picked for service to the emperor. Many settled along the border of the empires, and they gained influence and land through their relationships or marriage with the ruling class. A daughter of the well-to-do business family Fugger married this way. In present-day western Slovakia, various properties go by that name. In the year 1526, the Habsburgs ascended the throne in the Bohemian and Hungarian kingdom. However, Vienna, the centre of power of the new ruling dynasty, was located outside these new lands. The acquisition of the manor in Marchegg was the first possession of the Pállfy family in an Austrian hereditary land. This brought them a step closer to having their interests assured by the imperial court. It is assumed that they still did not have any residence in Vienna for a period of time. In his will, Paul Pállfy mentioned the fact that his youngest son would need to find accommodation in Gänserndorf when traveling to Vienna. Today there are two palaces in Vienna that bear the name Pállfy, while in Bratislava there are five. With the passing of Ladislaus Pállfy in 1947, the Marchegg line of the Pállfys came to an end, two years after the detonation of the bridge over the Morava at Dürnkrut.