Eisenstadt

Haydn’s palace town

Eisenstadt is the capital of Burgenland, Austria’s easternmost and smallest state — a flat, wine-producing province that borders both Hungary and Slovakia. The town itself is modest in size, but its cultural significance is outsized: this is where Joseph Haydn spent 30 years in service to the Esterházy family, composing symphonies, string quartets and operas in the Haydnsaal of Schloss Esterházy, and where his tomb remains in the Bergkirche above the town.

For visitors from Vienna, Eisenstadt is a 45-minute train ride that delivers the full Esterházy palace experience plus a Haydn immersion that goes well beyond what any Vienna museum can offer.

Schloss Esterházy

The Esterházy family were the wealthiest and most powerful magnate family of the Habsburg Empire — wealthier, at various points, than the Emperor himself. Their palace in Eisenstadt, extensively rebuilt in baroque style in 1663 and then again in empire style in the early 19th century, is one of the finest aristocratic residences in Austria.

Book Esterházy Palace admission tickets for access to the state rooms, the portrait gallery, and the Haydnsaal — the concert hall where Haydn conducted the Esterházy court orchestra for three decades.

The Haydnsaal is the highlight. This 18th-century baroque hall — frescoed ceiling, gilded gallery, perfect acoustics — is where Haydn premiered many of the symphonies now performed in the great concert halls of the world. Concerts still take place here (Haydn Festival each September) and the hall is still regarded as one of Austria’s finest rooms for chamber music.

In the steps of Haydn

The Schloss Esterházy tour “In the Steps of Joseph Haydn” is the most detailed way to experience the palace — following Haydn’s working day through the rooms he used, with audio and musical accompaniment in the Haydnsaal.

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) served the Esterházy family from 1761 until his death — first as Vice-Kapellmeister and later as Kapellmeister. He composed at Eisenstadt and at the family’s summer palace at Esterháza (in present-day Hungary), largely isolated from the musical world but, as he said himself, “forced to become original.” The isolation produced the symphonic revolution that influenced Beethoven, Mozart and every classical composer who followed. Haydn’s house in Eisenstadt — the Haydnhaus on Haydngasse — is a small museum; the larger Haydn Museum covers his life and work in more detail.

The Bergkirche and Haydn’s tomb

The Bergkirche (Mountain Church) on the hill above the old town contains Haydn’s tomb — the composer’s body was returned here in 1820, though his skull arrived separately in 1954 after a peculiar episode involving phrenology and Vienna’s Museum of Natural History. The church also contains the extraordinary Kalvarienberg — a life-sized journey through the Passion carved in wood and stone, built by the Esterházy family in the early 18th century.

Combining with Neusiedlersee

Eisenstadt is the ideal starting point for the Neusiedlersee (Lake Neusiedl) — 15 km south by car or bus. The lake is one of the great birdwatching sites in central Europe (it sits on the migratory flyway between the Danube and the Adriatic). See Neusiedlersee for more.

Getting there

By train from Vienna: Wien Meidling to Eisenstadt, approximately 45–55 minutes depending on the service, roughly 15€ return. Eisenstadt station is 20 minutes’ walk from the palace, or a short bus ride.