Rohonci Villa

The Rohonci Villa on Pearl Island was built by Baron Gedeon Rohonci at the end of the 19th century. It is located in a natural environment by an arm of the so-called dead Tisa River, suitable for vine cultivation. The highest quality indigenous wine, “Krokan,” originates from this area.

The villa is a multi-storey building with classicist style features. The main façade is dominated by a risalit with three symmetrically positioned windows on the ground floor and upper floor. The central part of the main façade on the ground floor features the entrance porch. The risalit is highlighted with plaster decoration imitating stone blocks. The roof is massive, and at its central part there was an octagonal watchtower, which was altered during later adaptations.

Above the window lintels on the upper floor, medallions decorated with the head of Bacchus – the patron of vineyard workers – and animal heads are displayed. Alongside these anthropomorphic and zoomorphic elements, vegetative motifs appear in shallow relief depicting fruits and cereals. In the medallion above the central window, above the entrance, was the Rohonci family coat of arms, replaced by a star after World War II.

The full repertoire of decorations symbolically represents the luxury and abundance of the entire estate at the time, as well as the wealth of the Rohonci family. The villa is semi-buried on a sloping terrain: the main façade is one-storey, while the rear provides direct access to the upper floor via a terrace on a pedestal, with the ground floor below serving as a basement.

A special place was occupied by a large wine cellar, which could hold 25 barrels of wine in wooden casks and 12 in glass containers. Within the estate, a winery for grape processing and wine production was also located.

The Rohonci family, like many other noble families, faced a difficult fate: since 1919, the heirs have lived in Hungary, and after World War II, the estate was nationalized and allocated to agricultural property. As no investments were made, the building today is far from its former glory.

The villa is located in the Municipality of Novi Bečej and was declared a cultural property of importance on 11 March 1995. Today it belongs to the descendants of Rohonci. It is in poor condition, devastated, and requires urgent intervention by the competent authorities to save it from oblivion.