Hidden in the woods and brush near Topolcianky, Slovakia, is an old house completely enveloped by twisting trees and vines. The house is located just past the castle that once was the summer residence of the Hapsburg family, where Marie Antoinette spent her summers as a child. This is one of those special places where the visitor feels connected to history, where rather than feeling the cold depression of abandonment, one immediately senses the happy times of an elegant bourgeois family walking through the many rooms, and sitting on the front porch that still bears traces of frescoes. It is possible to imagine that, in such close proximity to the castle, the family played some role in royal life, and lived knowing that they were dependent on the monarchy. One even sense the power of the Revolution, and of the changes that it set in motion.

Time does not stand still as one moves through this place; it fluctuates from distant past, to upheaval, and then to the present. Nor are the visual reflections of the visitor singularly focused; in the moments of actually looking that house, of later thinking back to the visit, the images of the house, the overgrown garden, the woods, and the castle all become intertwined.

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