Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt

The palace fills one side of Eisenstadt's main square, ochre and white, rebuilt from a medieval castle into a baroque residence and later given a neoclassical front. Its centre is the Haydn Hall, a frescoed room with a wooden floor and no fixed seating where Joseph Haydn worked as court composer to the Esterhazy family for about thirty years; it is still used for concerts, and the acoustics are the reason. Guided tours take in the state rooms and the hall, and behind the building a large park runs out with ponds, an orangery and old trees. Haydn's tomb is in a church on the hill nearby.

What you actually see

• The Haydn Hall - the frescoed concert room where the composer worked for the princely court.
• The state rooms - the baroque and neoclassical apartments shown on the guided route.
• The palace park - the landscaped grounds behind the building, with ponds and an orangery.
• The Bergkirche - the church on the hill nearby that holds Haydn's tomb.

When to go

Spring to autumn, when tours run frequently and the park is open. A concert evening in the Haydn Hall is the best way to experience the room, and an autumn festival fills the town for a week. Winter cuts the hours sharply. Mornings are quieter, and the park is free to walk at any time.

Honest expectations

Interiors beyond the Haydn Hall are modest by Viennese standards, and some rooms are given over to changing exhibitions of uneven quality. Tours are timed and mostly in German. Eisenstadt is small and very quiet in the evening. If you come only for the hall, an hour covers it and the ticket feels steep.

Nearby

The Neusiedler See and the wine villages along its shore are twenty minutes east.