Kaiserebersdorf Castle

Kaiserebersdorf Castle, view from the south-southeast

Emperor Ebersdorf before 1680, hand drawing by Wolfgang Wilhelm Prämer (* 1637 Vienna, † December 24, 1716 Margaretenhof "im Stock")

Portal built in 1618 by masters from Kaisersteinbruch

Kaiserebersdorf Palace, engraving after Salomon Kleiner (1750)

View of the castle over Münnichplatz

A wing of the Kaiserebersdorf Palace

The Kaiserebersdorf Castle is a castle in the district part Kaiserebersdorf in the 11th district of Vienna Simmering at Kaiser-Ebersdorfer road 297th

history

In 1162 Emperor Barbarossa gave a Conrad de Prato an estate that was located between Schwechat and the Danube. A fortified castle was built on this area. It consisted of an inner moat and kennel, an enclosure wall with towers, palisades and an outer moat, which was previously fed by the Schwechat . Later it came into the possession of the Lords of Himberg, who called themselves Himberg-Ebersdorf from 1243 on. The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1269. The Lords of Ebersdorf , later Counts of Thierstein and top chambers in Austria, then lived here.

In 1485 the castle of that time was besieged and taken by Matthias Corvinus's troops. In 1499, as a result of an exchange of goods between Veit II. Von Ebersdorf and Maximilian I, the castle came to the Habsburgs , who often used the castle, which was administered by a court hunter, and the later castle as a residence and visited it for hunting purposes. Under Emperor Maximilian I , the still fortress-like castle was made habitable again in 1529 as a result of the destruction and devastation of the First Turkish Siege of Vienna and by well-known architects and builders of the Renaissance period such as the Italian architect Pietro Ferrabosco , the builders Hans Tscherte , Hermes Schallautzer and the stonemason Benedikt Kölbl has been converted into a magnificent hunting and pleasure palace in the Renaissance style. A forework and a moat were also rebuilt.

In 1550, under Ferdinand I , another expansion took place. In 1552, under Maximilian II, Europe's first menagerie was set up in the palace. In addition to lions, tigers, giraffes and bears, it also housed Soliman , Vienna's first elephant, brought back from Spain as a wedding present by Emperor Maximilian II. Even before the menagerie was set up, there was a wolf enclosure on the site where wolves were kept for hunting. Between 1558 and 1561, the castle was greatly expanded and expanded under Maximilian. Sources and later scientific excavations in 1990 show that there were major structural changes within the clock wing during this time and that the pupil wing was built, which adjoins the clock wing to the southwest and was connected to it by a narrow wing. In 1607, the menagerie moved to the nearby Neugebude Palace and later to Schönbrunn Palace . In 1618 master masons from Kaisersteinbruch made a new portal. In 1619 the castle served the Bohemian rebel leader Heinrich Matthias von Thurn as the headquarters against Ferdinand II. (HRR) .

During the second Turkish siege , the castle burned down completely. Under Leopold I , it was rebuilt from 1687 to 1689 for 136,000 guilders in the baroque style, with the chancellery and south wing as well as the palace chapel being rebuilt and the buildings being given their current facade structure. The initials of Leopold I can therefore still be found today on the double-headed eagle above the main portal. Leopold I, spent every autumn at Schloss Kaiserebersdorf. In 1745 Maria Theresa left the castle to the canon and auxiliary bishop Anton Marxer as accommodation for the poor and orphans.

In 1773 Josef II had the castle converted into a barracks for the artillery . In the campaigns of 1792 ( coalition wars) and 1809, the castle served as a field and military hospital. From 1868 infantry of the Austro-Hungarian Army was stationed here, including the Austro-Hungarian regiment Hoch- und Deutschmeister . From 1883 to 1918 the kuk clothing depot was housed here.

From the late 1920s, the former imperial residence was finally only used as a juvenile prison. A penal institution for male adults has been set up in Schloss Kaiserebersdorf since 1975 with the Simmering prison .

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 1: A – Da. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 .
• Michaela Müller ( et al. ): The archaeological and architectural studies in Kaiserebersdorf Castle . (2 volumes and CD-ROM). Monographs of Urban Archeology Vienna, Volume 3. Magistrat der Stadt Wien, MA 7 - Department Urban Archeology (or: Phoibos-Verlag), Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-901232-98-5 .
• Heike Krause - Michael Schulz - Christine Ranseder - Gabriele Scharrer-Liska, Kaiserebersdorf Palace. From aristocratic residence to prison (Vienna Archaeological 7), Phoibos Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-85161-048-2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Representation of the Archduchy of Austria under Ens 1, 1831, p. 225 ff ( Google eBook, complete view ).
2. ↑ The first zoo was not in Schönbrunn on ORF on May 8, 2012, accessed on May 8, 2012
3. ↑ Report of February 20, 1618 from Kaisersteinbruch to the Lower Austria gentlemen, written by the rent master Johann Miller: ... the six masters, as Ulrich Payoß, Pietro de Magistris , Leonhardt Holzäpfel , Nicola Nuovo, Andre Ruffini and Antonius Bregno , so all wälsche , four masters of your Kayser Lichen Majesty ... anjetzt on Ebersdorf a main gate lead .
4. ^ M. Leisching:  With the pupils in Kaiserebersdorf. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, June 26, 1934, p. 6 (online at ANNO ). and
   Herbert Exenberger : Prison instead of education. Kaiser-Ebersdorf youth prison 1940–1945. From the educational institution to the youth prison ( memento of the original from January 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: doew.at , Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance, accessed on January 13, 2011. 

Web links

Commons : Schloss Kaiserebersdorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry via Schloss Kaiserebersdorf to Burgen-Austria
• Research Society Vienna City Archeology - Schloss Kaiserebersdorf
• From imperial residence to functional prison building (Der Standard, December 13, 2010)
• Information about the castle at www.wehrbauten.at

Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 33 ″  N , 16 ° 28 ′ 23 ″  E