The crypt of the Tisza family
The crypt is a few minutes’ walk from the castle. We know that László I Tisza, who retook the estate, did not try to build a grand residence during his first years in Geszt. Maybe he felt his imminent, untimely death, because in addition to creating a solid financial foundation for his family’s future and supporting the issues of his church, one of his first large expenditures was the construction of the family crypt where he was soon to be laid to rest. According to the Chronicle of Fekete Geszt, the crypt was built in the new cemetery between 1764 and 1769.
The present building was erected in 1902, and after that the remains of family members who passed away elsewhere were also taken to the family crypt in Geszt. Currently there are 33 persons buried here, including great figures of Hungarian history: Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza, the Count of Szeged, Lajos III Tisza, and Prime Minister Count István IV Tisza. The crypt reflects the prestige of the family, and the Tisza ladies are also buried here, including Countesses Katalin Teleki, Júlia Teleki and Ilona Degenfeld-Schomburg, Otília Holles, Mrs. István Tisza Jr née Jolán Sándor, Countess Erzsébet Keglevich, and Vilhelmina Tisza (wife of baron Pál Lusenszky).
Many of the Tisza children with great promise and talent died young, including the poet Domokos and József Tisza in the 20th century. Child mortality used to be high, from the children of László Tisza and Katalin Teleki, József, Károly, Ferenc and Emilia are buried here, and so are the children of Lajos Tisza and Júlia Teleki, Lajos, László and Béla–in a shared coffin since 1877. Prime Minister István Tisza wrote in the family Bible when Juliska Tisza died: „Our little daughter born on 13 September 1889, christened Juliánna Paulina, the great Almighty took her on 1 January 1894.” According to his last will, Lajos Kálmán Tisza, who passed away in Argentina in 1974, is also buried here.
