The baroque water castle which is surrounded by a beautiful park was first mentioned in 1130 and has always been a center for weddings. Emperor Friedrich III endowed this charming fairy tale castle to his wife, Eleonore, Infanta of Portugal, on the occasion of their wedding in 1460.

In April 1708, Elisabeth Christine, the mother of Maria Theresia, spent 2 nights there before getting married to Karl III. At the main stair case there is a memorial plaque with a Latin inscription remembering this event: “Here the Spanish Queen spent  two nights before happily getting married to Karl. This remarkable presence is of abundant splendor. Therefore this house should be dear to us.”

The castle once was the residence in his old age of field Marshall Gideon von Laudon,  who had been born in 1717 in Tootzen, in the Baltic Livland. He entered the service of Maria Theresia in 1742, won against the Prussian Fredrick the Great and in 1789 finally expulsed the Turks from Belgrade. Being a big sponsor of the arts and sciences, he bought the castle in 1776 and furnished it elaborately in order to spend his last years there until 1790. Substantial parts of the interior decorations hail from that time. The extensive park still exudes the complacent spirit of that era.

Address: Mauerbachstraße 43 - 45, 14^th district

Accessibility:

 U4 - Schönbrunn, U4  - Hütteldorf, Bus ( Schloss Laudon)

 U3 - Westbahnhof, S 50 - Hadersdorf

 U1 - Südtirolerplatz/Hauptbahnhof, S 80 (Hadersdorf)

 U4 - Längenfeldgasse, U 6 - Meidling, S 80 (Hadersdorf)

        Railway station Hadersdorf: 5 minutes walking distance

city map