Kaštieľ v Snine

The manor house in Snina is a remarkable example of Classicist architecture in eastern Slovakia. It stands on an elevated site referred to in old documents as Lisa or Lysá, with roots stretching back to the seventeenth century – the first written record of a wooden curia on this spot dates to 1646. In 1781, Countess Terézia van Dernáthová commissioned the reconstruction of that original timber building into a solid masonry manor.

Following her death, her sons sold the entire Snina estate, including the manor, to József Rholl, a prosperous mining and metallurgy entrepreneur, in 1799. It was Rholl who had three statues of Hercules cast; one of them still stands in the manor's courtyard today. Over the following decades ownership changed several times – in 1857 Rholl's daughter Klára, wife of Count Teodor Csáky, inherited the estate, which later passed to the Belgian Count Coburg and subsequently to Count Štefan Ocskay.

After years of neglect the manor underwent extensive restoration. On Friday, 5 July 2013, it was ceremonially reopened with a church service and a blessing of the building. On that occasion Dušan Roll, a direct descendant of the former owners and an honorary citizen of Snina, handed a symbolic key to the town's mayor, Štefan Milovčík.