Leopoldskron Castle

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Leopoldskron Castle, behind the fortress

Schloss Leopoldskron is a Salzburg castle from the 18th century. With its extensive castle park and the park-like landscape surrounding it, it is located in the green space of the Riedenburg district . In the southeast borders gneiss Moss to, on the southwest Leopoldskron-Moos . A castle chapel belongs to the castle . The associated Meierhof is located north of the castle . Since the beginning, the designed outer palace garden has included the Leopoldskroner Weiher and Leopoldskroner Strasse , the oldest chestnut avenue in the State of Salzburg.

History of the castle

The builder, Prince Archbishop Leopold Anton von Firmian (painting in Leopoldskron Palace)

The Archbishop of Salzburg, Leopold Anton Eleutherius Freiherr von Firmian , who ruled from 1727 to 1744, had the palace built in the Riedenburg as a personal summer residence , which after his death was to become the prime minister of the Barons von Firmian. The castle was built between 1736 and 1740 according to plans by the Benedictine monk Bernard Stuart . It got its name from the first name of the archbishop and the crown in the coat of arms of the Firmian family. The stucco work comes from Johann Kleber . After the death of the builder Firmian in 1744, his heart was buried in the palace chapel, while the body, like that of all archbishops, was buried in the Salzburg Cathedral . The castle first fell to the nephew of Archbishop Laktanz von Firmian. It was originally three-story and had a high mansard roof with an octagonal central tower. The pictures in the ballroom (ceiling painting Four Seasons ) and some in the particularly remarkable chapel are by Andreas Rensi (around 1740). The ceiling painting of the Chapel Wedding of the Atalante (also around 1740) was made by Franz Anton Ebner .

Leopold's nephew Laktanz lived in the castle for a good 40 years. During this time, an impressive collection of 571 paintings was created. After 1760 the castle was rebuilt in the classical style, the tower including the mansard roof was demolished and replaced by an attic floor. After Laktanz's death in 1786, his son Leopold Graf Firmian inherited the property. After the primogeniture rights were abolished in 1816, the castle changed hands frequently, only the castle pond remained in the possession of the noble Firmian family until after the First World War . The writer Julius Schindler was one of the residents . In 1837 the shooting range owner Georg Zierer bought the castle, who sold most of the pictures in the unique and extremely valuable painting collection at flea market prices. King Ludwig I of Bavaria later acquired the castle and temporarily lived in it after his abdication.

Other owners followed until Max Reinhardt , director and co-founder of the Salzburg Festival , bought the palace in 1918. He owned Leopoldskron until the expropriation of his Salzburg property on April 16, 1938. In 1937, however, he had fled to New York because of the increasing threat to the Jewish population. Reinhardt learned of his expropriation from the press while he was working on American cultural projects in New York . Stephanie von Hohenlohe ("Hitler's spy") was supposed to run the " Aryanized " castle as a guest house for prominent artists. She had it generously redesigned, but fled to England when the war began. For a short time, however, the well-known, politically opportunistic conductor Clemens Krauss lived in the castle until after 1945, in the republic of Austria, which was re-established after the end of the Nazi regime, it was returned to Max Reinhardt's heirs, who later sold it.

  • Venetian room in Leopoldskron Palace

  • Archbishop Firmian donates the castle to his nephew's family

  • Library designed by Reinhardt based on the model in St. Gallen

  • Stucco work with the Firmian coat of arms and the Salzburg lion

Gardens

Leopoldskron Castle from the southern edge of the pond

There is a baroque garden in front of the palace building . It goes back in its complex to the building by Archbishop Firmian 1736-1740, the originally small baroque palace park in the south and west of the palace was newly laid out under King Ludwig of Bavaria as an English garden, and under Max Reinhardt redesigned as a neo-baroque garden significantly enlarged. The complex is one of the most important garden architectural monuments in Austria and is under monument protection ( No. 41 in the appendix to Section 1, Paragraph 12 of the DMSG ).

To the south and around the pond is the landscape garden. The area still belongs to the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Center of the City of Salzburg ( 784 ) and, together with the castle, forms the Leopoldskroner Weiher landscape protection area ( LSG 37 , 81 ha) and an important part of the green belt for the Salzburg metropolitan area . The part of Leopoldskronerstrasse near the castle that extends into the landscape also belongs to the enlarged castle park.

The Leopoldskroner Weiher

Fishermen at the Leopoldskroner Weiher with the Gaisberg in the background

The castle pond , commonly known as the Leopoldskron pond , is fed by the Almkanal .

In the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century there was a bathing establishment on the north bank, initially only intended for soldiers' training and later also for the entire population of Salzburg - the portal of the men's swimming school in the winter months served as access to the 13,000 m² ice rink . It was also often used for romantic boat trips.

After the wooden bathing establishment was destroyed by aerial bombs in World War II, the entire pond was temporarily used as a bathing lake. In place of the wooden bathing establishment, today's Leopoldskron outdoor pool was built after 1960, which was subsequently expanded several times. This outdoor pool is located north of the castle. Not far from there (also in the Riedenburg-St. Paul district) is the Salzburger teacher's house . In the vicinity of the large Leopoldskroner Weiher are the old ponds of the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter (St.-Peter-Weiher) , which were probably also created by peat extraction . The Leopoldskroner Weiher is still open to the public and is also used for fishing.

The castle today

Schloss Leopoldskron on the reverse of the 1000 Schilling banknote (1966)

Schloss Leopoldskron is owned by the US non-governmental organization Salzburg Seminar , a meeting place for international executives from politics, business, art, culture and science. It is only accessible to members and former members of the Salzburg seminar. If there are no seminars, rooms in the castle can be rented. In 1973 the adjacent Meierhof was also bought by the foundation. The castle has been used as the Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron since 2014.

Leopoldskron Castle was one of the main locations for the film The Sound of Music . It can also be seen on the back of the 1966 1000 shilling banknote.

  • Stumbling block for Max Reinhardt

  • Stumbling block for Richard Metzl

  • Stolperstein laying point access to the castle (Leopoldskronstraße 56–58)

literature

Web links

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

References and comments

  1. ↑ Mistress at Schloss Leopoldskron. In: Martha Schad : Hitler's spy. The life of Stephanie von Hohenlohe. Heyne, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-453-21165-0 , pp. 104-118.
  2. ^ Eva Berger: Historical Gardens of Austria: Gardens and parks from the Renaissance to around 1930 . tape 2 Upper Austria, Salzburg, Vorarlberg, Carinthia, Styria, Tyrol . Böhlau, Vienna 2003, ISBN 978-3-205-99352-0 , p. 242 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ cf. Ice rink Leopoldskroner Weiher, announcement of the season opening 1897/98 . Image file on Wikimedia Commons.

Coordinates: 47 ° 47 ′ 18 ″  N , 13 ° 2 ′ 19 ″  E