Schloss Eckartsau
1918
Built around 1720 in the game-rich wetland forests bordering the Danube, this Baroque hunting lodge was a favourite locality for aristocrats indulging in the noble pleasures of the chase.
The history of the Habsburgs at Eckartsau starts in 1760, when Franz Stephan of Lorraine acquired the lodge in the Marchfeld. The Habsburg who left his particular stamp on it was heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, who remodelled it extensively in neo-Baroque style. Eckartsau is renowned as the place where the last Habsburg emperor Karl I spent the winter of 1918/19 before going into exile.
Today Schloss Eckartau is open to the public and houses the headquarters of the Donau-Auen National Park, a body run by the Austrian Federal Forest Office.
