Halbturn Palace, Halbturn, Austria

The Imperial family once used Halbturn Palace, Burgenland’s most important Baroque building, as a hunting lodge and summer palace. The palace, in northern Burgenland, and its splendid parklands, is regarded as one of Burgenland’s most esteemed historic attractions.

Halbturn palace was built in 1711 during the reign of Emperor Charles VI by Lucas von Hildebrandt, one of the most important Austrian figures in late baroque architecture. It has gone through good times and bad. Its heyday may well have been the epoch shown in an oil painting from the middle of the 18th century. During the first Turkish siege the imperial stud had been destroyed. The Halbturn estate was mortgaged for several years and passed back into imperial-royal ownership under Emperor Charles VI. After the death of Emperor Charles VI his daughter, Maria Theresia, succeeded to the throne on account of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1740.

In 1765 Maria Theresia acquired Halbturn Palace, part of the estate of Hungarian Altenburg at the time, from the Hungarian crown. She gave it as private property to her favourite daughter, Archduchess Marie Christine, as a present for her wedding to Duke Albert-Casimir von Sachsen-Teschen. For this occasion the baroque artist Anton Maulbertsch was also commissioned to paint the ceiling fresco, “Triumph of Light”.

Halbturn Palace offers a varied programme of art, culture, wine and gourmet food all year round. Fascinating annual exhibitions, high quality concert series, various summer events and the famous Pannonian Christmas Market in the historical setting of the palace draw thousands of visitors and tourists from home and abroad every year.

References:

Schloss Halbturn

Palaces, manors and town halls in Austria

User Reviews

Michael Wlaschitz (3 years ago)
Very nice park to have a walk around.

Madara Maurina (3 years ago)
Beautiful and quiet castle with a restaurant, a large park, a hotel in the castle itself and a fantastic Airbnb in the stable area. Very close to Neusiedlersee lake and Pandorf Shopping center.

David Postolache (3 years ago)
Very nice location for weddings and other events

Gaetano Scalfidi (3 years ago)
Very nice castle, with parking lot, bicycle racks. Beautiful garden with some arts and sculpture.

Natalia K (3 years ago)
Nice place, but honestly, I was expecting more. However, the park is very relaxing. They do not allow to go down to the parter at the front though. A little shop situated in the secondary building (not in the palace itself) is interesting, too. They have local wines for sale, but they are hugely overpriced.

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