Eszterháza is a
palaceA palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome...
built in
FertődFertőd is a town located in the Győr-Moson-Sopron county of Hungary, not far from Austria. Fertőd was formed when the towns of Eszterháza and Süttör were unified, in 1950....
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
by Prince
Nikolaus EsterházyNikolaus Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent"...
. Sometimes called the "Hungarian
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center...
," it is Hungary's grandest Rococo monument.
Construction of the palace probably began in 1762, when Prince Nikolaus succeeded his brother Paul Anton.. Before he became Prince, Nikolaus was accustomed to spending much of his time at a hunting lodge called Süttör, built in the same location around 1720 with a design by Anton Erhard Matinelli.
Eszterháza is a
palaceA palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome...
built in
FertődFertőd is a town located in the Győr-Moson-Sopron county of Hungary, not far from Austria. Fertőd was formed when the towns of Eszterháza and Süttör were unified, in 1950....
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
by Prince
Nikolaus EsterházyNikolaus Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent"...
. Sometimes called the "Hungarian
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center...
," it is Hungary's grandest Rococo monument.
History
Construction of the palace probably began in 1762, when Prince Nikolaus succeeded his brother Paul Anton.. Before he became Prince, Nikolaus was accustomed to spending much of his time at a hunting lodge called Süttör, built in the same location around 1720 with a design by Anton Erhard Matinelli. The hunting lodge was used as nucleus around which Esterháza was built.
The first architect to work on the project was Johann Ferdinand Mödlhammer, succeeded in 1765 by Melchior Hefele. While the palace is often compared to Versailles, which the Prince had visited in 1767,
H. C. Robbins LandonHoward Chandler Robbins Landon is a musicologist.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied music at Swarthmore College and Boston University. He subsequently moved to Europe where he worked as a music critic. From 1947 he undertook research in Vienna on Joseph Haydn, a composer on whom he...
claims that a more direct influence can be found in "Austrian prototypes, particularly
Schönbrunn CastleSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
in Vienna."
The palace cost the Prince the sum of 13 million
guldenThe Gulden or forint was the currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1754 and 1892 when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the forint was divided into 60 krajczár...
, a figure that Robbins Landon terms "astronomical".
Eszterháza was first inhabited in 1766, but construction continued for many years. The opera house was completed in 1768 (the first performance was of
Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres...
's opera
Lo spezialeLo speziale , Hob. 28/3, is a three act opera buffa by Joseph Haydn, with a libretto by Carlo Goldoni.A love triangle between the poor apprentice Mengone, the rich and assured dandy Volpino, and the local apothecary's ward, Grilletta, Lo speziale is a sidesplitting comedy of great warmth and...
), the marionette theater in 1773. The fountain in front of the palace was not completed until 1784, at which point the Prince considered his project complete.
Location
The palace was built near the south shore of the
Neusiedler SeeLake Neusiedl is the second largest steppe lake in Central Europe, straddling the Austrian–Hungarian border. The lake covers 315 km², of which 240 km² is on the Austrian side and 75 km² on the Hungarian side. The lake's drainage basin has an area of about 1,120 km²...
, on swampy land, a health hazard at the time. Robbins Landon notes that "it was a particularly eccentric idea on the part of Prince Nicolaus to chose it as the site for a large castle. Possibly the castle's existence was to prove 'mind over matter'.
Rooms
The palace has 126 rooms. Of particular note is the
Banquet Room which has on its ceiling a painting of
ApolloIn Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities...
in his
ChariotThe chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open,...
. The large library holds almost 22,000 volumes and is graced with the letter 'E', standing for the family surname. The largest room is the grotto-like
Sala Terrana which was inspired by the then fashionable Italianate style. On the ceiling are dancing Angels who hold wreathes of flowers in the shape of an 'E'.
Haydn at Eszterháza
From 1766 to 1790, the estate was the home of the celebrated composer
Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres...
, where he lived in a four-room flat in a large two-storey building housing servants' quarters, separate from the palace. Haydn wrote the majority of his symphonies for the Prince's orchestra. Eszterháza also had two opera houses, the main theatre seating 400 (destroyed by fire in 1779) and a
marionetteA marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires, formerly strings but dropped due to increased durability of wires; a marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control...
theatre; Haydn conducted his own and others' operas, often with more than a hundred performances per year.
The palace was geographically isolated, a factor which led to loneliness and tedium among the musicians. This is seen in some of Haydn's letters, as well as in the famous tale of the
Farewell SymphonySymphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, known as the "Farewell" Symphony , was composed by Joseph Haydn in 1772....
.
Picture gallery
Books
- Robbins Landon, H. C. and David Wyn Jones (1988) Haydn: His Life and Music. Thames and Hudson.
- Webster, James (2001) "Joseph Haydn," article in the New Grove.
External links