For the paperback release of The Countess, I thought I'd do a little trip around the internets to introduce some of the sites featured in the novel related to the life of Erzsebet Bathory. First stop: the little town of Sarvar, and the castle (now a hotel) built by the Nadasdys and finished more or less as it stands now during Erzsebet's time there. The village is a "spa" town known for its mineral pools, and where (legend has it) Erzsebet slept with the local butcher's son, Lazslo Bende, and bore him an illegitimate child. Of course, in the novel I had a different explanation...
What I really like are the paintings of Nadasdys on the walls and ceiling in the main hall. Apparently back in "the day" the river flowed around the castle walls in a kind of moat, though it's all grass in these pictures. A more lovely home than most of the time period, and well-preserved.
Fun fact: Sarvar, as it turns out, is only maybe an hour away from the town of Illmitz, in Austria, where my mother's family is from.
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