From the 13th century, we have data about who owned Érd. The exact date of the building of the castle is unknown; however, it is probable that a fortress stood in its location from the 13th century. The first mention of the “Stone Mansion” is from 1519, when it became the property of the Sárkány family of Ákosháza.
 
In 1526 on his way to Mohács, Louis II stayed in Ambrus Sárkány’s castle. There were lords and prelates in his entourage, among them the Lord Chancellor, István Brodarics, whose writes about Louis’s stay in Érd in his book titled “The Real Portrayal of the Battle the Hungarians Fought on the Field of Mohács Against the Turks”:
 
“The king, upon hearing that the Turks crossed the Száva and besieging Pétervárad strongly on land and water, left Buda on 23rd of July, to head towards Tolna on the bank of the Danube, and others joined him on the way. The king, Queen Mary and the archbishop of Esztergom together had approximately 3000 horsemen and foot soldiers...
 
“On the same day when we left Buda we arrived to Ambrus Sárkány’s castle and the place, 2 miles from Buda, which is called Érd. The king lost his dearest and excellent horse, which deceased because of a sudden illness. The king was immensely saddened by the loss. After the king spent a few days here, but no one else arrived, he departed with the small group he arrived with and went to the next village called Ercsi.”
 
After 1543 Turkish people appeared as owners of Érd. In these times the castle is mentioned as Hamza Bey’s khan. After Hamza Bey, Kasim Bey was the lord of the castle.
 
During the Turkish occupation Érd had several Hungarian lords as well; therefore, the village paid taxes twice. György Pállffy was the lord in Érd in 1653, then in 1675 the owner is Miklós Illésházy, who pawned the castle and the manor to Péter Szapáry for 12 years; the pawn was renewed until 1722. After this the members of the Illésházy family became the owners till the beginning of the 19th century.
 
From 1828 Fülöp Batthyány was the new master of the manor, along with Tárnok and Diósd. He was a relative of the Illésházy family on the female side; he was the lord lieutenant of Vas County, an imperial and royal chamberlain and an inside, secret advisor to the king. After the icy flood of 1838, the new part of the town named after him: Fülöpváros (Fülöp-town).
 
In 1848 the very wealthy György Sina bought the castle. György Sina’s name can be found on the pillar of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in the list of people whose generous donation allowed the building of the bridge. György Sina was a Greek banker of Spanish origin with incredible wealth. After his death his son Simon Sina rebuilt the castle in neo-renaissance style in 1869.
 
Fortunately the layout and the frontal appearance of the castle before the Sina-renovation were not lost, and the one-time agricultural building is still standing today in the state it was in 1846. Let’s take an imaginary tour in the castle we know from the survey.
 
The entrance to the rectangular building was on the south side. The rooms opened from a circular corridor. To the left of the entrance was a separate flat with two rooms with tile stoves and a kitchen with a freestanding chimney. The chamber of the lord occupied the east wing of the castle. The spacious rooms were heated with circular and rectangular tile stoves from the corridors through small heating gaps. A door opened from the biggest room in the west wing to the balcony, which the inhabitants could reach on a stairway of semicircular steps. This room probably filled the part of the salon where social life took place. The dining room and the walk-in closet were located in the northeast corner of the castle. The chapel and a series of rooms were placed in the north wing. The drawing from 1846 depicts an enormous kitchen in the northwest corner. Bread was baked in the stoves, and the meals were cooked in crockery. The smoke left the room through a freestanding chimney, in the flue of which the hams were smoked. There were more rooms in the west wing, then came the staircases leading to the cellar and the guestrooms upstairs.
 
There was a narrow courtyard between the west wing and the Cuckoo Mountain, where the entrance of the cellars, carved into the mountain, could be reached. The vaulted cellars consisted of more intersecting corridors and belonged to the castle, along with the big vaulted room stretching under the castle. These cellars still exist today.
 
Simon Sina renovated the castle we just “toured” to fit his own needs. There are legends telling about the magnificent furniture and luxurious life that went o in the castle.
 
Among the guests of the castle were the aristocracy, the authors, scientists and artists of the age. Simon Sina was a good friend of István Széchenyi. Mór Jókai was also a frequent visitor, and he mentioned Simon Sina as the “nabob of Érd.” The castle was dubbed the “castle of the golden man”, drawing a parallel between the generous Simon Sina and Mihály Tímár’s character from the novel “The Golden Man” by Mór Jókai.
 
Simon Sina died on the 15th of April 1876, only months before the archaeological congress. The English, French and German scientists attending to congress were received in the castle by his bailiffs in accordance with his orders. The archaeologists arrived by steamships in Érd to examine archaeological sights. We can read more about the details of the congress in Jókai’s book titled “Életképek.”
 
After Baron Sina’s death the Wimpffen family inherited the manor, because Simon Sina’s daughter Anasztazia married Viktor Wimpffen, and later the manor went into the Károlyi family’s ownership.
 
From 1920 it functioned as the apprentice house to the Jesuits, then in 1928 the Visitations female order moved into the castle. Sister Mária Margit Bogner was a role model for her sisters; her grave in the yard of the Roman Catholic church, which was moved here from its original location net to the castle, has become a place of interest for pilgrims.
 
In 1940 the visitations sisters moved out of the building, and their place was taken by the teachers and students of the KALOT Collage.
 
In 1941 Pál Teleki prime minister visited the KALOT youths studying in the castle.
 
During the Second World War the castle housed a military hospital. The pieces of the columns of the entrance hall with the tympanum are still visible at the location of the castle that was demolished 40 years ago.