Not far from the Hungarian sea sits a small village that hosts one of Hungary’s most gorgeous abandoned castles. The forgotten military base doubles as a ghost castle in Hajmáskér.
The village is only a short 14 kilometers from Lake Balaton and quite close to Veszprém. It boasts a surprisingly deep history in the form of a military base, which was once the best in Europe. Now, it’s one of the most beautiful abandoned castles of Hungary, and it definitely needs to be on everybody’s list to check out.
The military barracks of Hajmáskér were built back when Hungary still had a real king. During the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the reigning monarch, Franz Joseph, recommended this plot for the building of a future artillary military base. The land was bought in 1901 by the crown for 1,8 million Crowns. The goal was to build the biggest artillery training boot camp and shooting range in all of Europe.
The complex comes to life
The grounds took up 5 thousand hectares, so this goal was entirely in reach. The architects trusted with the planning and building of the base camp were Márton Kondor and József Feledi, and they were perfect for the job. Next to the military complex, they additionally worked on an enormous park and a lake.
They didn’t stop there, since the barracks were arranged so that they could accommodate everything that everyday life demanded. The camp supported a stable capable of housing up to a thousand horses. There was also an ammunition depot, workshops and a hospital. These are only the absolutely necessary units, but the camp also had a school, a theater, and even modern facilities such as a slaughterhouse, a dairy, refrigeration house, and wastewater treatment plant.
These investments were extremely costy and the two architects couldn’t stop adding in their wonderful features, thus the complex just kept getting more expensive as time went on. According to magyarorszagom.hu, in the end, it cost more than 5 million Crowns. Surprisingly enough, the construction only lasted three years, which is a shockingly short time for such a huge complex to be built.
Base history
After WWI, part of the military base was turned into a prison for prisoners of war. Here, several thousand Russians, Serbians and Italian soldiers were kept. The military base designed a special currency to provide for the prisoners. They received it after the worth of their confiscated items. Use of the special currency was limited to the bounds of the base as to prevent prisoners from getting access to real money.
During WWII, in 1944, when the German occupation was in full force, the Germans took over the command of the base, which they vacated once the Russians arrived. The Russians arrived, then stayed for quite a while. Sadly the military base of Hajmáskér had started to wear down with time and usage and no one bothered to fix it. During the Russian stay, the lake drained and the buildings were left in disrepair. Once the troops were withdrawn in 1990, they took everything of value and made money from the things they couldn’t move.
Since then, the military base has changed hands several times, but none stuck. The idea of a full-blown renovation has always hung in the air, but sadly, it has never been pursued. To this day, the building stands there, letting nature claim its walls back.