Zprávy památkové péče 2017, 77(Příloha):63-73

The Leopold II Berchtold family on the road

Lucie Pešlová, Veronika Syslová

NPÚ, ÚOP v Kroměříži

Travel was the lifestyle not only of the Leopold Berchtold family (1863-1942), but of the higher social strata in general. Leopold Berchtold, like his wife Ferdinandine (Nandine) (1868-1955), grew up in an environment full of change and movement and in the environment of several homes. Life on the move was natural to them, and they raised their three sons Alois (Louise), Adalbert (Bélu) and Zikmund (Zsigu) in a similar manner. Leopold Berchtold worked in the diplomatic services from 1893, first in Paris, then in London and later in St. Petersburg. At the height of his career he served as foreign minister for Austria-Hungary from 1912 to 1915. He then served as the Supreme Hofmistr to the heir to the Habsburg throne, and from 1917 he was the highest chamberlain of the new Emperor Charles I. After the end of World War I, he was an undesirable person in the newly formed Czechoslovakia, and he was permitted to visit Buchlovice only with the consent of the authorities. He died at the castle in Peresznye, Hungary in 1942.
Leopold's diplomatic service meant that the family traveled throughout a considerable part of Europe. In addition to the usual historical monuments, local attractions, museums and galleries, and zoological and botanical gardens, daily visits to rural aristocratic residences also became a normal part of their life. Official journeys alternated with trips to private residences in Moravia and Hungary and with stays in Vienna. Spa and seaside resorts were also popular destinations.
The family's changes in residence can be traced from correspondence, diary entries, sketches, and later also from photo albums. Most of the photographs are the work of Nandine Berchtold, who began photography from 1897 at the latest. She became an amateur photographer who enjoyed her hobby. As the diaries show, she also developed her own photographs, adjusting the resulting images in albums and adding labels. Her photographs do not reflect a high technical level. A certain sense of artistic feeling and composition in Nandine's work cannot be denied; most of the photos, however, express a lively and diary approach, capturing the people she met and the places she visited.

Keywords: nobility, travel, diplomacy, Berchtold family

Published: December 1, 2017  Show citation