Eckartsau Castle

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Eckartsau Castle
Eckartsau Castle, front view

Eckartsau Castle, front view

Conservation status: Received or received substantial parts
Place: Eckartsau
Geographical location 48 ° 8 '25.8 "  N , 16 ° 47' 37.1"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 8 '25.8 "  N , 16 ° 47' 37.1"  E
Height: 148  m above sea level A.
Eckartsau Castle (Lower Austria)
Eckartsau Castle

Eckartsau Castle is a building converted from a castle into a hunting lodge in Eckartsau not far from the Donauauen in Marchfeld in Lower Austria . It went down in the history books as the last domestic place of residence of Emperor Charles I after he renounced any share in state affairs on November 11, 1918.

history

The original castle was a four-sided moated castle . The originally free Eckartsau family who owned the castle was first mentioned in 1175 in a deed of donation from Irnfried von Rötelstein, who owned the castle on Braunsberg near Hainburg , to Klosterneuburg monastery . In this Heinrich des Ekkarisowe is named as a witness of the donation. The Eckartsauer were the Hochstift Regensburg fief .

Over time, the noble family acquired market rights, land and other castles around the castle. The Lords of Eckartsau also had a crypt built in the Minorite Church in Vienna , where the most respected people in the country were buried at that time.

Since Konrad von Eckartsau supported the Austrian Duke Albrecht V to take office as a 14-year-old, he was generously sponsored by him. Under Emperor Friedrich III. The Eckartsau were robbed again and again and their castle plundered, on the other hand Georg von Eckartsau himself was a robber baron .

Wilhelm von Eckartsau was the last male Eckartsau. His daughter Appolonia inherited the castle and Gut Eckartsau in 1507. Their sons sold the estate to Georg Freiherr von Teuffel after their mother's death in 1571. Over the next two centuries, the owners changed very often until Franz Ferdinand Graf Kinsky bought the castle in 1720 . He had the castle converted into a hunting lodge according to plans by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach ; among other things, the west wing was completely rebuilt.

In 1760, Emperor Franz I Stephan of Lorraine , husband of Maria Theresa von Habsburg, ruler of the Austrian hereditary lands, bought the castle. In 1797, both grandchildren, Emperor Franz II (from 1804 Franz I of Austria) transferred it to the family foundation of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen (known as the family fund).

After Maria Theresa's death in 1780, the palace fell into disrepair. Due to structural damage, the east wing was completely and the south wing partially demolished. Archduke Franz Ferdinand had it completely renovated from 1896 to 1897 and rebuilt the parts that had already been torn down. The palace park was also redesigned at that time. In 1912, the heir to the throne had the magnificent staircase made of hard white Kaisersteinbrucher stone removed from the former Harrach Garden Palace in Vienna- Landstrasse and the parts were brought to Eckartsau Palace.

The castle gained importance again at the end of the monarchy as the occasional residence of Emperor Charles I , who lived here in 1917 and 1918 a. a. Processed requests to him. This use was also retained after his resignation from the government in Austria, when he and Empress Zita and their children, including six-year-old Otto , moved from the state-owned Schönbrunn Palace to private Habsburg ownership on the day of the resignation of the government and from the night of 11/12. November 1918 lived permanently in Eckartsau. Here, on November 13, 1918, Karl handed over to a Hungarian delegation of politicians, who had to muster a lot of persuasion, his written waiver of the exercise of government in Hungary, but also there, as in Austria, did not formally abdicate. When going into exile became inevitable due to the refusal to abdicate, the British Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt ordered the former Imperial and Royal Court train of the State Railways to Kopfstetten, the nearest train station. From there, Karl and his family left for Switzerland on March 23, 1919.

With the Habsburg Law of April 3, 1919, the Habsburg family fund was taken over into state ownership without compensation. The castle, which is now in the Donau-Auen National Park , became the property of the Republic of Austria, administered by the Austrian Federal Forests .

As a museum, the castle has also been awarded the museum seal of approval. The Marchfeld castles also include Niederweiden Castle and Hof Castle .

Picture gallery

  • Southwest view of the castle

  • Big staircase

  • Charles I / IV's study after renouncing any share in state affairs

literature

  • Gerhard Stenzel: From castle to castle in Austria . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1976, ISBN 3-218-00288-5 , p. 44.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Eckartsau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Karl Wißgrill : scene of the rural Austrian nobility. Volume 2, p. 334 ( archive.org ).
  2. ↑ Franz Karl Wißgrill op. Cit. Page 335.
  3. ^ Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 3: Ha-La. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-218-00545-0 , p. 62.
  4. ↑ Arno Kerschbaumer: Nobilitations under the reign of Emperor Karl I / IV. Károly király (1916-1921). Graz 2016, ISBN 978-3-9504153-1-5 .
  5. ↑ Gordon Brook-Shepherd: To Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor , Fritz Molden Verlag, Vienna 1968.