The Zichy Chapel in Lórév is located in a beautiful natural environment in the floodplain of the Danube, on the Csepel Island. The chapel was built on a small hill as high as the embankment located just a few meters away, so when the Danube leaves its bed, the chapel turns into a small island.
But not only is the place very beautiful, but the building itself is also very impressive. Its builder was none other than Emperor Franz Joseph, who wanted to erect a memorial in memory of the executed Hungarian traitor, Ödön Zichy.
No matter how beautiful the place and the chapel itself are, its walls still preserve a sad memory. We are writing in 1848, when Ödön Zichy and his brother Pál, the Croatian ban, were on their way to their home estate. Unfortunately for them, the soldiers of the Hungarian commander-in-chief Artúr Görgey stopped them near Soponya, searched their luggage, and found treasonous documents on them. Both were arrested, then transported to Lórév and immediately brought before a military court. The head of the military court was Artúr Görgey, who sentenced Ödön Zichy to death by hanging, and acquitted his brother Pál Zichy. Ödön Zichy, or as he was born, Eugenio (Jenő) Zichy, was the first and last aristocrat to be hanged during the War of Independence. The chapel still bears the count's birth name.
After the public hanging, his body was placed in an unmarked grave, just buried. Legends say that part of his body was eaten by stray dogs. A year after his death, his sister-in-law dug it up and had it taken to the crypt of the Kalóz church, where he was given the last rites. In the meantime, the parish priest of Adonyi marked the place where the count's body lay with a cross.
A short time later, a significant turning point occurred. Emperor Franz Joseph visited Zichy's grave during a tour of the area, and decided to have a chapel built at the site of his execution in memory of his imperial loyalty. The completed neo-Gothic building was inaugurated in 1853 amid a grand ceremony attended by high-ranking church and secular leaders. It is telling that the ordinary residents of the area stayed away from the consecration. And the fact that the emperor had a chapel built for a Hungarian traitor proves more than anything else that Ödön Zichy was not executed by the Hungarian court-martial without reason. Artúr Görgey was already living in exile at that time, and may never have known that an ornate chapel had been added to this place with sad memories.