Laxenburg Castle Park

Laxenburg was a Habsburg country seat from the fourteenth century, and the park around it was remade from the 1780s in the English landscape manner - some two hundred and eighty hectares of meadow, groups of trees, a large artificial lake and a set of built follies. The centrepiece is the Franzensburg, a neo-Gothic castle built between 1798 and 1836 on an island in the lake for Francis II, and it is an early and thorough example of historicism: genuine medieval fittings, doorways, panelling, stained glass and ceilings were brought from buildings across the empire and installed in a new structure, exactly the method used at Kreuzenstein seventy years later. Rowing boats and a small ferry cross to the island, and the park has a joustyard, temples and a Chinese pavilion.

What you actually see

• The Franzensburg - a neo-Gothic castle on a lake island, fitted with real medieval material.
• An English landscape park - 280 hectares of meadow, groups of trees and water.
• Boats to the island - rowing boats and a ferry across the artificial lake.
• Follies through the grounds - temples, a joustyard and a Chinese pavilion.

When to go

April to October; the Franzensburg closes over winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The castle is shown by guided tour and closes seasonally. The park charges entry. It is large and flat with long walks between the follies; boats are seasonal.

Nearby

Mödling and the Vienna Woods are west; Vienna is twenty minutes north.