The residential house formerly referred to as Szvetics House and later as Sigray House dates back to mediaeval times but later it was redecorated in Renaissance, then in Baroque style in the 17th century. During the subsequent centuries, it was remodelled several times. In 1964, it received a new façade, and the latest reconstruction was carried out in 1987.
The building has been home to the Europe House Association since 1995 the centre functions as a venue for educational activities, scientific and cultural programmes, it stages summer universities, and it also works towards enhancing EU integration processes. The building has served as the seat for the Institute of Advanced Studies (iASK) since 2014 where various courses are run in English and a broad range of scientific activities are carried out.
The most famous former resident of the building was Republican count Jakab Sigray, the director of the late 18th century’s Reformists’ Society who died as a martyr: history books give a clear account of his role in the Jacobite conspiracy and his execution on Vérmező The Sigrays, all loyal to the emperor, were trying their best to erase his figure from collective history; his descendants submitted special request to have his name removed from the family even 100 years following his death. Count Jakab Sigray was born on 3 May 1764. His father, Károly Sigray, was the chief bailiff of Somogy County, head of the Transdanubian Regional Court and a member of the seven-strong Court of Appeal – important positions that earned him count status in 1780. His mother, Zsófia Szvetics, was a descendant of a highly esteemed family in Kőszeg which gave the town more than one chief judges. Jakab’s father, Károly Sigray inherited the house (then standing at 14 Úri Street today at 14 Chernel Street) from his father-in-
Jakab Sigray first acted as an assistant judge, and later worked as a member of the Transdanubian Regional Court. Over the centuries, the Sigray Palace was a venue for diverse activities, one deserving special mention: here 23-year-old writer Sándor Tatay ran an office offering services in graphology. In his autobiography entitled [1} Age of Wanderings {2](1977), he writes about his financial difficulties and how he sets up the office to earn him an ancillary livelihood. The venture, that proved quite successful, was operated under the pseudo-name Abu Gaddha, a “world famous oriental master”, and Tatay claimed he was working as his disciple being the only handwriting expert in Europe to apply a specific psychoanalytic method.
The Sigray Palace also bore witness to another interesting life story, that of an eccentric lady, the British-born wife of Consul Jenő Miske-Gerstenberger. Gerstenberger (1886-1946) was the owner of the building at 14 Chernel Street and his job as a diplomat took him to places such as Vienna, Warsaw, Trieste, Munich and Istanbul on a regular basis, and eventually, he was appointed as chief consul in the latter three cities. At his station in Istanbul, his English-born wife was involved in a scandal of which the consul had little knowledge. Mrs Miske (Mary Allison-Walters who went under the code name Fruit) acted as a courier: the SOE [Special Operations Executive], an agency set up in July 1940, took advantage of her husband’s position as a consul. SOE relied on Mrs Miske on a number of occasions; but in the spring of 1942 she passed on secret messages to leading newspapers. She was detected, and initially sentenced to death, but the judgment was changed into imprisonment. A year and half later she was exchanged for another prisoner, and released from prison.
