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The Eszterhazy Palace in Fertöd was vacated at the end of the Second World War by the retreating German Army. Subsequently, the Soviet Army used the palace as headquarters. After the liberation of Hungary from its Fascist regime, the Socialist era began during which the palace was used as a storage for corn. Furniture was stolen and the parquet was burned, and so on. Now, parts of the original wooden decorations and some of the furniture have been reconstructed from anther palace of the Eszterhazy family. The Palace is now the property of the Hungarian state, but the Eszterhazy family is engaged in helping to restore it.
Apart from the Baroque theatre, the building complex of this resplendent palace has remained intact. Much of the exhibitions in the museum housed here conjure up the building's heyday under Miklós Esterházy Fényes (1762-1790). Rich gold-plated halls, period wall paintings, lacquer plates brought from China, 18th-century furniture with embroidered upholstery and porcelain display the fashion of the period, befitting of a Baroque-Rococo princely court. The great Austrian composer Joseph Haydn lived and worked here for nearly half of his active period, namely from 1766 until 1790. An exhibition and a room in the palace commemorates him, while concerts held in summers.