Architect Denies Nuclear Bunker Rumors at Hatvanpuszta Estate

Hatvanpuszta is not a luxury Versailles or a secret underground nuclear facility, but rather a historically reconstructed 13-hectare agricultural estate built around a former 19th-century model farm, according to the project’s architect, Dániel Taraczky, as reported by Világgazdaság. The intervention has sparked intense political scrutiny and heritage disputes in Hungary.

The Architectural Reconstruction of the 13-Hectare Estate

Planning for the Hatvanpuszta project began in 2009. At the time, the 13-hectare site established by József Nádor featured buildings that were severely degraded, with ruined roofs and compromised walls, vg.hu reported. The socialist era brought multiple alterations using improper materials like asbestos-cement sheets and concrete patching. Taraczky stated that without intervention, the structures would have completely collapsed.

The reconstruction sought to establish a working agricultural enterprise capable of producing vegetables and fruit to supply up to one hundred people, alongside family residential spaces, vg.hu reported. The estate includes a former sheep barn converted into a processing plant, a fruit storage area, a jam-making apparatus, and a cold-storage room, vg.hu reported. Taraczky noted that the estate’s scale is large, but dismissed claims that it functions as a luxury complex, explaining that the guest house size matches family usage needs.

Blikk.hu reported that the first renovated building was the officer’s residence, which lacked an intact wall at the onset. Two large stables were also heavily deteriorated. Taraczky told blikk.hu that he jokingly considered leaning into internet rumors: That should have been perhaps what I said, that yes, there is a very deep bunker, thirty meters deep, where an elevator takes you down, and Viktor Orbán secretly meets Trump and Putin there. In reality, the space identified in media reports as a nuclear bunker is a cold-storage room, blikk.hu reported.

Heritage Disputes and Official Proceedings Over the Stables

Origo.hu reported that the project faced formal complaints from the Chamber of Hungarian Architects regarding the demolition of former stables and the preservation of historical values. Taraczky defended the work by stating that structural elements were preserved where possible, but the stables had become life-threateningly unsafe due to prior alterations that had stripped away their original structures, origo.hu reported. He maintained that demolitions received authorization, though the government office initiated additional proceedings as the construction drew nationwide attention, with a second-round heritage procedure currently underway.

Taraczky told origo.hu that the project was initiated by Győző Orbán, the prime minister’s father, whose personal ties to the location motivated the rescue effort against total decay. The architect stated a desire to eventually open the property to the public so visitors can inspect the site firsthand, origo.hu reported.

Taraczky acknowledged to blikk.hu that the multi-year venture has permanently linked his professional identity to the location: I am convinced I did a good thing, I do not have to be ashamed of myself. But it quickly became obvious that I will be Hungary’s ‘Hatvanpuszta architect,’ ‘Orbán’s architect,’ until the end of time.

The completed agricultural manor stands as an ongoing focal point of public debate regarding historical preservation, private property development, and political transparency in Hungary.