The Palace of Barons Pereni is one of the most famous sights of Vinogradiv and its most impressive buildings. A visit to the palace is an opportunity to see with your own eyes the place where for several centuries lived the representatives of the most noble and rich family of Transcarpathia, who played a significant role in its history.
The Pereni Palace is located near the ruins of the Kankov Castle in a picturesque park in the southeastern part of the city. It is one of the oldest buildings of this type in Transcarpathia, one of the oldest monuments of palace architecture of Podkarpackie Rus.
The Pereni family owned the city since 1399 for more than four centuries — the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund I gave it to the representatives of the dynasty together with the surrounding lands for their active participation in the battle with the Turks. In the nearby Kankov Castle, the Pereni Palace was moved from the dilapidated fortress in the early 15th century, but the building was erected long before that.
The palace building is known to have been built as early as the 14th century. Originally it served for defense and was a one-story closed structure with corner towers. The second floor was completed only in the XVII century in the course of a large-scale transformation, as a result of which the palace acquired Baroque features and the appearance that can be seen today. The corner towers were given an opulent baroque finish, the central facade was decorated with a risalite with a convex pediment topped with a stucco coat of arms of the Pereni barons, the gutters were shaped, decorative lattices were installed on the windows, and a large park with a variety of trees, including exotic ones, was laid out around the residence. The palace divided the estate into two parts: the front courtyard with the entrance gate and the park behind its rear facade.
In plan, the palace is a rectangle with protruding square towers at the corners and a prominent center of the front facade. It is crowned by an original Baroque shingled roof with splits, which gives the building its peculiarity and special zest.
Interestingly, the layout of the building has been preserved in its original form. On the first floor at Pereni there were household premises, on the second floor — living rooms, located enfilade, and the central hall. There was and still is today also an «underground floor» — large cellars, which can be accessed from the first floor rooms. The height of the rooms of the second floor is relatively small, they have vaulted ceilings, and the side rooms of the first floor have cross-like cylindrical ceilings. In the central hall, the real treasure of the building is a fresco depicting Agasfer and Esther, also resulting from the renovation of the building in the 17th century.
The Pereni family lived in this palace until 1944, and the most famous of them — Zsigmond Pereni, a fighter for Hungary’s independence from the Habsburgs, a hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849, who was executed by the Austrians in 1849. In 1989, a plaque in his honor was placed on the right wing of the palace, which can still be seen today.
The palace, the scattered one-storey outbuildings with shingled baroque roofs, and the ancient, mystical park surrounding it all add up to one romantic, unforgettable picture. A visit to the Pereni residence leaves a deep impression. Walking around the territory of this attraction of Transcarpathia, it is impossible not to feel the amazing atmosphere of antiquity, the spirit of aristocracy that this place breathes. Due to the originality, antiquity and beauty of the Pereni Palace can be said without exaggeration as the most interesting attraction of Ukraine, for the sake of visiting which you can specially plan your vacation in Vinogradovo.