Schloss Rusovce

Rusovce Mansion (in Slovakian Rusovský kaštieľ, in Hungarian Oroszvár; in German Karlburg) is a neoclassical mansion that replaced an older 16th-century manor house while retaining the medieval structure. The Windsor-style façade mimics the English Gothic style. An English park surrounds the manor house. In the twentieth century, the mansion and the park were owned by Hungarian Prince Elemer Lonyay, husband of Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, widow of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria-Hungary. The couple resided in the mansion until early 1945. Lonyay, who died in Budapest in 1946, bequeathed the estate to the Benedictine Order, which sheltered him and his wife at the Pannonhalma Archabbey during the final weeks of World War II. In 1947, because of the Paris Peace Treaty, Hungary had to cede the area to Czechoslovakia. The then-communist government seized the premises in 1948. Currently, the Government of the Slovak Republic is responsible for its upkeep. During renovation work in 2015, archaeologists uncovered a Roman aqueduct. The underground stone channel was likely built to transport water to an ancient bathhouse, which may have been situated in the mansion's south wing. A brick used in the aqueduct bore the inscription “C VAL CONST KAR,” referring to the second-century brickmaker Gaius Valerius Constans, who had his workshop in Carnuntum. The restoration of Rusovce Manor House is expected to last until 2029.