Presumably Knight Heder already had had a castle built in the middle of the 12th Century, which had probably been made of wood and had stood on the so called "Jewish Hill" rising at the end of the recent castle park. The edifice itself had been destroyed during the Tartar invasion. Afterwards, at the initiative of King Bela IV, castles and keeps were built in the country one after the other. In 1521 Ferenc Hedervary lost the estate due to disloyalty but later on the proprietary rights of the estate reverted to Janos Hedervary, who had the fortified castle reconstructed in Renaissance style. It received its recent Baroque form in the second half of the 18th Century, then later on, in the 19th Century Karoly Khuen-Hedervary applied the signs of Romantic style but the former Baroque exterior was soon restored.
The English park surrounding the castle was established under the personal direction of the Englishman Bernard Petri, who also introduced exotic trees here like the Chinese gingko tree and the American magnolia.
The oldest part of the Hedervary Castle can be traced back to the 13th Century. This is the hexagonal tower on the South-Eastern side with the thickest walls and the largest area, which probably used to be a freestanding edifice. In the Gothic, then in the Renaissance period the keep was enlarged with new parts. Demolished and rebuilt in 1534, the castle was also re-shaped in 1658. It received its Baroque form - as it is seen today - in the second half of the 18th Century.
In the 19th Century, Karoly Khuen-Hedervary had it rebuilt in Romantic style but its former Baroque facade was restored very soon.
The castle has three towers. According to the tradition, the building stood at the section point of three counties: Gyor, Pozsony and Moson so each tower was located on the territory of a different county. The only truth in this story is that at one time, the frontier of Gyor County and Pozsony County lied at Hedervar but Moson County had never reached that far. The tradition could rather derive from the fact that the Hedervary family had large estates in all three counties.
Due to the "land" reform of 1945, the counts of Hedervar were dispossessed of their property, although at that time they themselves had already not lived off the land. By 1947 a folk boarding school was organised in the castle, where children from the neighbouring villages and farms could attend primary school. From 1983 it operated as an artists' retreat house.
Between 2002 and 2004 the castle was restored with lot of passion, during which the marvellous rooms, suites, bathrooms and salons were renovated in period atmosphere while the highest-standard conveniences were also installed. In spring 2004 the four star Hedervary Castle opened. The hotel offers an ideal location for organising weddings and conferences but it is also very popular with tourists due to its cachet, its fabulous rooms and well-known gourmet restaurant.
