The Esterházy funeral chapel in Galanta
Cemeteries, tombstones, graves
József Esterházy's grand plans to restore the family significance of Galánta and to ensure its succession were thwarted by cruel fate: his daughters, Mária (1827–1833) and Gizella (1837–1852) fell victim to epidemic diseases as children, and his son Géza (1834–1870) passed away from the shadows at the young age of 36 without any heirs. Count József died on 1 January 1879, and his wife, Róza Barthodeiszky (1795–1879), followed him on 4 December of the same year. (Their remains rest in the cemetery chapel also built by József.) With the count's death, the castle passed to the younger, Sáros branch of the main branch of the Esterházy family in Csesznek, but it lost its residential role and was not permanently inhabited. After the First World War, the owner at the time, László Pál Esterházy (1857–1942), first sold the estate and then the castle to the Czechoslovak state.