About us

Location

Sárvár is a small town with a long history in Western Transdanubia, situated on the banks of the Rába River, the geographical axis of Vas County, in the estuary of the Gyöngyös stream.

History of Sárvár

With a rich and varied history, the Rába Valley settlement – which is worth visiting not only for its thermal waters – has accumulated many tangible and cultural treasures over its more than a thousand-year history.

Between 1390 and 1534 the Kanizsai family owned the castle and the settlement, with minor interruptions. With the marriage of Tamás Nádasdy and Orsolya Kanizsai in 1534, Sárvár and the other Kanizsai estates became the property of the Nádasdy family.

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After the Turkish invasions, the humanistically educated Tamás Nádasdy established one of the cultural centres of the decaying country in Sárvár.

In 1534 he founded a school, which even won the recognition of Philipp Melanchthon, a prominent figure of the Reformation. In 1537, the landlord also established a printing press, whose many publications are known.

The first surviving product of the printing press is a Latin-Hungarian grammar book, A Grammatica Hungarolatina, published in 1539 by master teacher János Sylvester.

Sylvester was already working on a translation of the New Testament into Hungarian, which was printed in January 1541. As the first book printed in Hungarian in our country, this edition is an outstanding work of our cultural history. The printing of the New Testament was done by the first qualified Hungarian printer, Benedek Abádi.

The orchard of Tamás Nádasdy and the collection of art treasures of the family, which rivalled the similar collections of European princes and continued to grow over the following generations, also gained great fame. At the court of Tamás Nádasdy, noble youths learned courtly and chivalric life, while noble daughters learned the skills of domestic management in addition to intellectual cultivation.

The manorial court was open to the great figures of the Reformation, such as the preacher Mátyás Bíró Dévai, also known as the Hungarian Luther, or the humanist historian Antal Verancsics, who remained Catholic. The castle’s palace was continuously enlarged thanks to the Renaissance style of building.

The Defence system

It was during the Nádasdy family’s nearly one and a half centuries of ownership between 1534 and 1671 that the castle acquired the late Renaissance form that is still recognisable today. The castle’s pentagonal defence system, which can still be admired today, was built by Ferenc Nádasdy (1555-1604), son of Tamás, and his grandson Pál Nádasdy (1598-1633) to ward off an expected Turkish attack. The age of the Nádasdy family still defines the structure of the town. Settlements such as Péntekfalu, Tizenháromváros and Hegyközség began to be settled at this time.

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Sárvár, the healing magic

In the first decade of the 21st century, the development of the municipality was determined by the boom in health tourism, in addition to industrial capacity. In 1961, oil explorers discovered medicinal water, and the first thermal baths were built in 1968 to exploit it.

On 19 October 2012, Sárvár was awarded the certificate of the spa. After a one-year process, two areas of the town were awarded the status of spa with the names “Sárvár – Gyógyvarázs (Healing Magic)” and “Sárvár – Arborétum”.

The economic life of Sárvár, its leading role in tourism, and its rich cultural life and offerings have made it one of the most popular settlements in Hungary, and one of the TOP10 settlements in the country in terms of the number of overnight stays.

Therapy

Experience mind-body harmony with personalised lifestyle programmes!

beauty

Combining nature and modern science - the basis for effective beauty treatments.

gastronomy

Melea – The Health Concept provides each guest with a unique meal plan.

rooms, suites

83 rooms and suites with spectacular views on the shores of Lake Boating Lake, where it's all about idyllic holidays.