Pipo Castle in Ozora is a unique piece of Italian Renaissance in a small Hungarian village. The castle was built for Filippo Scolari, otherwise known as Pipo of Ozora, who came to Hungary as a merchant’s clerk/assistant when he was 13 years old and rose to become a renowned economist, a brilliant soldier and a distinguished diplomat at the 15th century court of King Sigismund.
The castle contains important Renaissance furniture, fabrics and travelling trunks. Its courtyard features a fountain that is topped with a copy of a Verrocchio putto, while one of the walls boasts a reproduction of a Michelangelo relief. A relic of St George is to be found treasured in the chapel. The reconstructed Renaissance kitchen provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of medieval Hungarian kitchens, of victuallers, cooks and servants. The armoury houses a splendid display of replica weapons from the Sigismund period. Outstanding copies of works by the great masters of the Italian Renaissance, Verrocchio, Donatello and Michelangelo, are to be found in the knights’ hall. The castle is also home to a richly documented exhibition on the life of Illyés Gyula, a famous 20th century Hungarian poet and novelist.
Visitors to the castle can get an insight into the life of the 14–15th centuries. There is also possible to stay in a historic apartment as a special guest.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.