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    Keynote members of the Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle family

​​Imre I. Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle

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Biographical Introduction of Imre I. Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle (abt. 1580 +1633)

​Imre I. was born about 1580, the son of György Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle, commander of the ancient fortress of Léva, and of Dorottya Érsek de Szelesény. Imre lived during one of the most difficult periods in the history of Hungary. He dedicated his life to his homeland and his family. He served for more than a decade as vice-governor of the county of Bars and Hont. He was a counsel and mediator involved with the ending of the crisis between the Czech’s and Transylvanian’s ruled at the time by Prince Gábor Bethlen. The highlight of Imre’s career was his mission as permanent ambassador to the Gate of Constantinople. While Bosin and Miloth were considered the founders of the Lipthay family in the 13th century, Imre is appreciated as the next in relevance, adding dignity to the Lipthay’s, a distinguished family of the ancient Hungarian nobility. Imre married three times. By his first wife Zsófia Kalnay he had four children, György, András, István, and Katalin; his second marriage to Kata Pély Nagy remained childless, and by his third wife Mária Majthényi he had one son János.

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           Antal Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle

           Fieldmashall-Lieutenant

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           Biography of Fieldmarshall-Lieutenant Antal Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle *1745 +1800

​Antal Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle, Fieldmarshall-Lieutenant, Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa, the descended of an old Hungarian family of the ancient nobility, whose line goes back to the second half of the 13th century, was born in 1745 in Szécsény, Hungary, son of Alexander Lipthay from his marriage to Therese Tapolcsányi. After the surrender of the veteran Höhle, Lipthay received orders to occupy the fieldwork at Új Palanka and oppose the landing and crossing of the mountains by the enemy. Lipthay undertook the task, led two batteries outside the fieldwork to a range of 2,000 paces, with which he received the enemy and thwarted their intentions. Later he defended the fieldwork at Szoska long and courageously, till he received orders to follow Fieldmarschall-Lieutenant Brechainville to Bersecz. On 19 October, General Major Harrach began his attack on the entrenchments of Új Palanka. Lipthay, who knew the area well, expressed the view that due to the low-level of the water at that time, the enemy would have had to moor their flat-bottomed boats. Lipthay, therefore, received orders to drive away these flat-bottomed boats and marched off with 500 men to carry out his task. He was not mistaken and managed his approach so fortunately that the Janissaries who were on the punts were cut off from a redoubt, in which the Spahis had thrown themselves. Lipthay now decided to attack the redoubt. He led the guns forward and placed himself at the head of the attack squad. He renewed the attack on the redoubt with his men three times without taking it. Lipthay wished to make a fourth attack with a new squad when the enemy asked to capitulate. Lipthay carried out further surprise attacks with skill and courage in the next few days. On 31 October, he took a flat-bottomed boat with two guns, and in the night of 5/6 November, he undertook a large foraging operation as far as Gradisca, with some 300 men, from which he returned with a considerable quantity of cattle, sheep, salt, and foodstuffs. In 1764 Lipthay, aged 19, joined the newly established Hungarian Guard as a second lieutenant, and in 1768 he was transferred to IR Pálffy with the same rank. At the beginning of the War of the Bavarian Succession, in 1778, Lipthay was a captain and at the beginning of the Turkish wars in 1788, a major. In the following year, 1789, Lipthay had already been promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and with his battalion defended Új Palanka, then Gladowa, and on 6 January 1790 offered the Turks the brilliant action at Negotin. With 2,500 men he put twice the number of enemy to flight, the result of which was that the provisioning of Orlova was thwarted, and Krajina, which had been occupied by the enemy, was cleared of them again and reoccupied by the Austrians. For these last feats of arms, Emperor Joseph who was with the army at that time promoted Lipthay to colonel. He had already earlier, in the 15th promotion (of 15 November 1788), been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa, for the courage of which he had so often given proof. In 1793 Lipthay was appointed colonel of IR Reisky, no.13. In May 1795 he was promoted General-Major. He was then given a brigade in Italy, with which he gave new proofs of his courage, and was seriously wounded at Castiglione (5 August 1796). After his recovery, he distinguished himself in the actions on the Brenta (3 November 1796), and in the battle of Monte Baldo (12 January 1797). He then received the command of the Tyrol Corps and its contingents but had to give up the command in March 1797 because of illness. In the campaign of 1799, Lipthay who had been promoted Fieldmarschall-Lieutenant in September 1798, was with the army in Italy once more and commanded a division. In the action at Verona (25 March 1799), he was again rendered unfit for action by a serious wound. Though he was taken to Padova to recover, he died on 17 February 1800 from the effects of his wound after long-suffering, at the age of 56 years. He has created a Baron for his outstanding military merits. The title was forwarded to his son Frigyes in 1830.

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          Baron Béla Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle

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Biography of Béla Baron Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle *1827 +1899

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Baron Béla Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle was born in Pest on 27 January 1827, the son of Baron Frigyes Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle and of Karolina Csekonics, daughter of the famous General József Csekonics. He studied in Temesvár, Szeged, and Pest, where he graduated in Law. During the war for independence in 1848-49, he served as a first lieutenant. In the winter campaign, he was severely wounded, and one of his hands remained permanently paralyzed. At the end of the conflict, he attended the surrender in Világos of the forces fighting for independence. After the defeat, he remained for more than a decade on the family estate in Lovrin, Torontal.

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In the 1860s he returned to public life, first as head of his county, then as elected member of the Hungarian Parliament. From 1867 he was governor of the county of Baranya, then of Pest until his resignation in 1869. In these years the first mortgage bank was created under his chairmanship. He held his parliamentary seat during several terms as a devoted follower of the Deák’s party (the supporters of Ferenc Deák, the architect of The Compromise of 1867, but after the party joined with the moderate left party of Kálmán Tisza in 1875 he abandoned the coalition, faithful to his liberal democratic creed.

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In 1886 he was registered among the peers of Hungary, partly in recognition of his manifold activities in public and cultural life. Baron Béla Lipthay was listed among those who paid the largest amounts of tax. He played a key role in public life, leading development initiatives of the capital: he was vice-chairman of the Committee of Public Works, in charge of the development projects of Budapest. He was part of the board supervising the construction of the Hungarian Parliament now in place. He also participated in societies promoting cultural values, as the Circle of Patrons of Arts, the Society for Applied Arts, and the Society of Creative Arts. He was chairman of the foundation committee of the National Theatre.

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Baron Béla Lipthay was a dedicated and constant collector of art throughout his life and sponsored Hungarian artistic talent. The pieces he collected – valuable furniture, porcelain and ceramics, mainly Zsolnay – were displayed in the Lipthay Palace built in the second half of the 19th century by Emil Unger and Miklós Ybl. Highly valuable frescos painted by Gyula Benczúr and Károly Lotz decorated the most important halls of the magnificent residence Baron Béla had built for the Lipthay family. After Baron Béla Lipthay’s death, his widow baroness Amalia Lipthay, born von Mack, donated the most important pieces of their collection to the Museum of Applied Arts of Hungary.

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Baron Béla Lipthay died in 1899, just before Hungary’s international significance began to fade. He did not imagine that only 50 years after his passing the palace he had built would be demolished, after the dictates of a communist regime committed to destroying the treasures built up in a thousand years of Hungarian cultural identity.

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The Lipthay Palace (the second building from right to left, at Buda's bank of the river Danube) was built at the beginning of the 2nd half of 19th century by Emil Unger for Baron Béla Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle

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         Baron Béla Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle *1892 +1974

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Biographical details of Baron Béla Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle *1892 +1974

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Baron Béla Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle was born in Lovrin, the family estate, on 28 May 1892, the son of Baron Frigyes Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle, member of the Upper House and of Countess Margit Lázár de Szárhegy et Györgyszentmiklós. During WWI he served as a first lieutenant in the 13th Husar’s Regiment. For his distinguished merits, he received both Signa Laudis decorations, the King Karl IV Troop’s Cross, and the First Class Silber Medal for his outstanding military services rendered in action for the Nation.

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After the end of WWI, after his father’s passing away, as Lovrin, the family estate, due to the outcome of Trianon’s Treaty, remained in Rumanian territory, Béla designed a procedure to exchange Lovrin for real estate property in Hungary, what he achieved in 1942, after years of hard work. The principle guiding the return of Lipthay’s property to Hungarian soil is that Lovrin, part of Hungary until the Treaty of Trianon, was granted to the Lipthay family by the Hungarian Crown.

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Béla married in 1918 Princess Eugenie Odescalchi, daughter of Prince Livio Odescalchi, Duke of Sirmia and of Baroness Ilona Zeyk de Zeykfalva, Lady of the Starry Cross Order. Three children were born, Baron Frigyes born in Lovrin 1919, died in the Soviet Union in 1942, Baron Antal born in Lovrin 1923 died in Charlottesville, Virginia, US, and Baron Bálint born in Lovrin 1934 and died in Budapest in 2008. Both, Baron Antal’s and Bálint’s branches are flourishing.

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After WWII Baron Béla and his wife Eugenie remained in Hungary until passing away. Both lived in Szécsény, together with Béla’s mother Margit and their son Bálint. During a hard time of communist dictatorship, Béla’s activity was focussed to his love for nature. His research and collecting of butterflies have achieved world attention. Several scientifical articles were published by Béla in Hungary. His collection with more than 16.000 butterflies is a relevant entomology setting, the widest in Hungary of the second half of the 20th century.

​​​The last owners of Castle of Szécsény, Nograd county, Hungary, prior to being

confiscated by communist dictate, was Baron Béla Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle

and his wife Eugenie, born Princess Odescalchi.

Saskő, owned by Imre I Lipthay de Kisfalud and his family in the 16th and 17th century