In Nagycenk (14km (9mi.) southeast of Sopron) is the ancestral home of the important Hungarian family of counts, the Széchenyi, whose name appears in many street names. The castle was built in 1750-58 and was rebuilt and extended around 1800 in Early Classical style; István Széchenyi had the west wing added in 1834-40 with gas lighting and sanitary installations, an innovation for Hungary. The castle houses the István Széchenyi Museum (open: Tue.-Sun. 10am-6pm) and a hotel. In addition the Budapest Transport Museum has as part of an exhibition on Hungarian transport (on the upper floor) a display of old locomotives and carriages; a narrow gauge museum railroad links the castle with Fertoboz.
An avenue of lime trees 2.6km (1 1/2mi.) long planted in 1754 leads north from the castle to a monument. In the actual Széchenyi mausoleum in the village cemetery of Nagycenk lies the most famous son of the Counts, István Széchenyi (1791 to 1860), statesman during the Hungarian Reformed period and the struggle for independence against the House of Habsburg 1848/49; in 1860 he shot himself in a Viennese mental hospital. Széchenyi was responsible for such important initiatives as the building of the Budapest Chain Bridge and the regulation of the Danube and the Tisza rivers.
He commissioned the building of St Stephan's Church in the main square (Széchenyi tér) in 1861-64 by Miklós Ybi in Neo-Romanesque style; the tympanum of the former Romanesque building has been preserved (at the entrance to the tower). In front of the church is a monument to the Count by Alajos Stróbl (1897).
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