Lainzer Tiergarten

The Lainzer Tiergarten is about twenty-five square kilometres of woodland and meadow on the western edge of Vienna, enclosed by a stone wall some twenty-two kilometres long that was built in the 1780s to hold game for imperial hunting; Joseph II ordered the wall, and the ground was reserved for the court until 1919, when it was opened to the public. Because it was never farmed or built on, the oak and hornbeam woodland inside is old, with large veteran trees, and the animals the wall was built to contain are still there - wild boar in numbers, red and fallow deer, mouflon - moving freely and used enough to people that seeing them is routine rather than lucky. The Hermesvilla, built by Franz Joseph for Empress Elisabeth, stands inside and holds exhibitions. Marked trails and viewpoints run through the reserve.

History

Emperor Ferdinand I created the reserve in 1561, enclosing it with a wooden fence as a private hunting ground for his family, and in 1781 a stone wall replaced the fence. After the end of the monarchy the state declared it a public nature reserve, entry was charged until 1973 and has been free since, and the reserve lost its eastern part after the First World War to the new Friedensstadt housing estate, where the old wall can still be seen in the Hörndlwald, and a north-western corner to the Westautobahn in the 1960s, made up for with part of the Laaber Wald (Wikipedia, Lainzer Tiergarten).

Highlights

• Wild boar and deer - free-ranging inside the wall, routinely seen.
• A 22-kilometre wall - the 1780s enclosure that made the hunting ground.
• Old oak woodland - never farmed, with large veteran trees.
• The Hermesvilla - Elisabeth's house in the middle of the reserve.

When to go

April to October; the gates close for the winter months. Half a day.

Good to know

Opening is seasonal and gates shut early - check the times before setting out. Dogs are restricted. Wild boar with young are genuinely dangerous; keep distance and stay on paths.

Nearby

Schönbrunn and Hietzing are east; the Wienerwald continues west.

Key facts