HEFELE, Melchior

(b. 1716 Kaltenbrunn, d. 1794 Szombathely)

Austrian architect (Hefele Menyhért in Hungary). He was first trained as a carpenter and architectural draftsman. Around 1734 he worked with the episcopal master Johann Georg Oegg (1703-1780) in Würzburg. Then he moved to Vienna, where he won a first prize and the Golden Medal for Architecture in 1742 at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was an instructor of the Hungarian bodyguard of Maria Theresa and since 1756 he had the title of a k. u. k. Builder.

From 1763 to 1770, Hefele, under Prince Bishop Cardinal Leopold Ernst Graf von Firmian, was a court architect in Passau, charged with the extensive reconstruction of the New Episcopal Residence in the style of the Viennese late Baroque.

From 1770 onwards, he worked mainly in Hungary, where he built the cathedral church and the episcopal residence for the Bishop of Szombathely, as well as the Primate’s Palace in Pozsony (now Bratislava in Slovakia).

Exterior view

Hungary’s third largest church, major work by Melchior Hefele (Hefele Menyh�rt in Hungary), was built for Bishop J�nos Szily in the place of the demolished castle church and palace, on Roman ruins. It is laid out in the form of a Latin Cross, with an extended sanctuary and short transepts. This is where Adolf Kunc and Lor�nd E�tv�s repeated the pendulum experiment proving the rotation of the Earth. In the Second World War the cathedral was seriously damaged during the bombing raid on the city - only a small portion of the beautiful ceiling frescoes and altar paintings could be saved. The periodic restoration of the temple continues to this day.

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Exterior view

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Exterior view

The photo shows the portal of the New Episcopal Residence.

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Exterior view

The Primate’s Palace is a Neoclassical palace in the Old Town of Bratislava (Hungarian: Pozsony, German: Pressburg), now the capital of Slovakia. It was built from 1778 to 1781 for Archbishop J�zsef Batthy�ny, after the design of architect Melchior Hefele. In 1805, the Palace’s Hall of Mirrors saw the signing of the fourth Peace of Pressburg, ending the War of the Third Coalition. Today, it serves as the seat of the Mayor of Bratislava.

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