Zoltán Alekszi realized his childhood dreams, his impressive achievement was included in the Guinness World Records: he rebuilt the forgotten, ruined castles of our country with his own two hands, using original materials, and also created a palanquin castle authentic to the period and an open air museum from the time of the conquest.
The world's only authentically built castle model park is located in Dinnyés, on the shores of Lake Velence, and praises the work of Zoltán Alekszi, who created them based on reconstruction ideas, carrying out a kind of value saving - with his bare hands, in a wonderful environment.
The castles are in place with county accuracy
"I lived the life of ordinary people until I was 35 and then
an illness came that turned my life upside down. It was then that my childhood thought began to preoccupy me more,
which came after reading the Egri stars. As a child, I envisioned a big castle for myself, but thinking about it with an adult mind, I decided to build small castles instead," says Zoli, who is the creator and owner at the same time.
What makes castles special, apart from the fact that they look fantastic?
"The promenade surrounding the castles shapes the shape of historical Hungary,
I tried to build the strengths so that they were in place with county accuracy. There is one exception, the castle of Szent István Székesfehérvár, which is located in the middle. In the park, you can see reconstruction attempts of forgotten, ruined Hungarian castles, which I built faithfully to the materials: the scaled-down castles, just like their originals, were made of stone, brick, wood and earth," the owner shares the details.
As it turns out, the starting points for the creation of castles are archeological and excavation floor plans, surveys, and then Zoli tries to gather all the information about the particular castle and prepares a sketch.
"Wooden castles take 7-10 days, stone castles up to four months"
- says.
Source: Mandarin
Guinness World Record for the most castle replicas
The unparalleled achievement was included in the Guinness World Records more than once: the builder was awarded in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
"The certificate states that the largest number of castle replicas in the world can be found here. A completely new category was born, which was preceded by three years of correspondence with the Guinness World Records team," we learn. The park now only exists in ruins
46 scaled-down originals of medieval Hungarian castles
visible.
Regarding the opinion of the profession, the creator quotes archeology professor Gyula Siklósi: "You have translated the language of archaeologists and scientists for ordinary people." We can attest to that. We understand more about the essence of the Middle Ages by admiring the reconstructed castles, through continuous aha experiences, than from a thousand specialist books. We can also add that
the desires of many of us from childhood awaken, they say hello back here:
the enticing daydreams of history beckoning from picture books.
Árpád-era open-air museum: it's like we've been here before
In addition to the castle park, an Árpád-era open-air museum was also built on the estate: a complete village was built with a wooden church, barns, livestock and farm buildings, also using archaeological materials, as a reconstruction attempt. The end result:
an environment that can be experienced and has an authentic effect, combined with some kind of romantic reality that comes from within.
"We've been here before" - that's what we felt while wandering around the open-air museum.
Next to the village, there is also a reconstructed palanquin castle and chariot castle, which further strengthens the experience of time travel that is becoming more and more tangible. The Hungarian chariot castles are mentioned in the chronicles, which is why he started building them, it turns out.
The Pope personally accepted Zoltán Alekszi's gift
What else can visitors find in the magical place of several hectares? In the park there is also an exhibition presenting the pottery of the Carpathian Basin, which illustrates the characteristic creations of eleven potters' landscape units.
Source: Mandarin
Last but not least, the 300-meter long Wall of Saints with 614 statues of saints. "On the construction of the wall and its dedication
a film was made for Pope Francis, which he received personally in the Vatican together with three statues in June 2023"
- says Zoltán Alekszi. Adds:
"Christianity surrounds Hungarians like the Wall of Saints surrounds this park."
A gift from Pope Francis and Zoltán Alekszi. Source: Vatican Media
Mandarin
