Esterhazy Palace at Fertod

Prince Miklos Esterhazy built this palace on drained marshland near Lake Fertoe in the 1760s, on a scale meant to match any court in Europe. A horseshoe of yellow ranges encloses a forecourt behind a wrought-iron screen, with more than a hundred rooms, formal gardens laid out behind and, once, an opera house and a marionette theatre in the grounds. Joseph Haydn served the household as music director for close to three decades and wrote a large part of his output here, much of it first performed in the rooms visitors now walk through. Restoration has proceeded in stages, and the ceremonial hall, the chinoiserie rooms, the chapel and the sala terrena are among the finished parts.

History

The palace grew from Süttör, a hunting lodge built here around 1720 to a design by Anton Erhard Martinelli; Nikolaus Esterházy began planning a new palace soon after becoming reigning prince in 1762, with the architects Johann Ferdinand Mödlhammer and, from 1765, Melchior Hefele. It was first inhabited in 1766, the opera house was finished in 1768 with Haydn's Lo speziale, and the marionette theatre in 1773; Haydn and his orchestra lived here from 1766 to 1790, the palace cost 13 million gulden, and after Nikolaus died in 1790 none of his successors wanted to live in the isolated house (Wikipedia, Eszterháza).

What you'll find

• The forecourt - the horseshoe of yellow ranges behind a wrought-iron entrance screen.
• The ceremonial hall - the frescoed state room at the centre of the main range.
• The chinoiserie rooms - lacquered and painted apartments in the restored wing.
• The Haydn rooms - the musician's quarters and the spaces where his works were first played.

When to go

April to October, when the gardens are open and the summer concert series runs; Haydn programmes in the ceremonial hall are the best reason to come and need booking well ahead. Closed on Mondays and much reduced in winter. Guided tours run to a fixed timetable, so arriving at ten past the hour can mean a long wait.

Before you go

Restoration has run for years and a large share of the building and grounds is still closed, bare or scaffolded, so what you see is a fraction of the whole. Some rooms are accessible only on a Hungarian-language tour with a printed English text. Without a car Fertod is awkward to reach and the bus timetable is thin. The gardens are formal but young and offer little shade.

Nearby

Sopron's old town and the Fertoe lake shore, good for cycling, are both close.

Key facts