Walent Berthóty Renaissance Manor House – Fričovce
In Fričovce everyone is attracted by the Renaissance manor house, which is the period culmination manifestation of the manor houses construction in Slovakia. It was built by the Berthóty family from 1623 to 1630.
The Fričovce manor house is unique in its sgraffito figural decoration, completed in 1630 by painter and graphic designer of the 17th century Martin Waxman in the Kingdom of Hungary. The author made his work using the technique of two-colour sgraffito, using ivory and grey-black carbon. If one takes a look at the sgraffito decoration of the mansion, one will see that the artist has depicted the heads compared to the body of the characters larger, in order to apply the principle of vertical perspective of the viewer from the bottom up.
Originally about 150 historical and mythological figures decorate the fields of horizontal gabled attics of the mansion. The selection of characters varies from a wide range of areas: ancient gods, along with symbolic figures of human virtues, define the figures of ancient times, Hungarian and Polish history, and among the kings and sultans also came to the foreground the duke Ján Žižka and sultan Amurat. The gallery of the famous Roman Empire reigning emperors and important figures of the Kingdom of Hungary was depicted by the author on the front facade of the manor house. On the front facade of the manor house in Fričovce, the Berthoty family sgraffito coat of arms – a heraldic shield with an eagle and a royal crown at the bottom – was preserved.
Since 1998, the owner of the mansion has become the Tomko family, which has revived this monument from almost more than 40 years of sleep. The totally dilapidated cultural monument required overhaul, which included static security, exterior and interior restoration of the manor house itself, the farm buildings and the park.
