Bercsényi Wine Cellars (Uzhgorod)
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UKRDOUG
N 48° 37.219 E 022° 18.278
34U E 596146 N 5386071
Nicolas Bercsényi, the last owner of the castle in Uzhgorod, dug out these 30 caves at the base of the castle hill during the transition from the 17th – 18th centuries to store wine.
Waymark Code: WMDKP1
Location: Ukraine
Date Posted: 01/27/2012
Views: 6
Nicolas Bercsényi distinguished himself at the Siege of Budapest in 1686 and was promoted to the rank of Colonel. In 1691 Bercsényi married Kristina Druget. Her father had died without a male heir, so all of the Druget estates became her property and hence the property of Bercsényi. As a result Bercsényi became the third richest magnate in Hungary.
Bercsényi had a close friendship with Transylvanian Count Francis II Rakoczi who lived in the nearby Palanok Castle of Mukachave and who led the Hungarian Revolution of 1703-1711.
As early as 1696, Bercsényi and Rakoczi had been plotting this revolution together. Bercsényi hosted secret meetings at his castle in Uzhgorod with the ambassadors of Russian Czar Peter the Great and French King Louis XIV to receive their support. Austrian spies intercepted correspondence between France and Rakoczi in 1700 and Rakoczi was subsequently arrested. Bercsényi fled to Poland to continue the preparations for the revolution. Rakoczi escaped and joined Bercsényi in Poland and together they began the fight for Hungarian Independence in 1703. The uprising was crushed in 1711 and Bercsényi lost all of his estates in Hungary.
The cellars are now all privately owned and used as garages. The row of cellars can be seen along Ivan Olbracht Street across from the University Botanical Gardens. The street used to be called Pidvalna (cellar) in reference to these wine cellars.
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