The Esterhazy family was a prominent noble Hungarian family from the 16^th century  and at one stage owned over 30% of the land mass of the old large Hungary. This meant that they held many government, diplomatic, ecclesiastical and military positions and supported the Hapsberg Emperor. They maintained control until Hungary was taken over by the Socialists and the lands became government farms.

Tata and the surrounding villages were bought in 1727 by József Esterházy,   Count Nicolaus Esterhazy 1839-1897 was responsible for much of the work in the wine, horse racing and arts in Budapest and Vienna and of course Tata. 

The Esterhazy Family in Tata were primarily responsible for the beautiful Baroque façade and relaxing village you see today.  It was created as a place for the aristocracy to indulge the excesses of the age, beautiful scenery, fine dinning, champagne  while attending the horse races. These sites are marked on the map below

The site of Steve's house is in the red circle next to the lake in the green area.

The site of the Esterhazy palace and their stables were on the left side of Lake Oreg.   The big circle in the middle is where the racecourse was built and where a railway station still exists today. The two small circles mark the English Gardens and the Esterhazy Champagne Factory.

The two Blue circles at far right are the areas of Steve's hill properties,  while the circle at top right is where the big Esterhazy cellar is found.  It was built around 1750 and is the subject of this months photos.  More on the other locations in upcoming editions

Stephen had heard of but never got to visit the Esterhazy large cellar, and this year the Baj village held an open day two weeks ago, which the family attended and finally got to see inside.  It has a large central dome, above an octagon shaped main room which housed the large wine Barrel.  One of the tunnels connected to the outside and the other seven held over 2 million litres of wine.   Cheers.