Park Palace, Orangery and the Leopoldine Temple

Logo Park Palace, Orangery and the Leopoldine Temple
Logo Park Palace, Orangery and the Leopoldine Temple

The Palace Park, with the Leopoldine Temple and the Orangery at the heart of it, is a jewel.

Palace Park

The Palace Park is one of the most important landscaped gardens dating back to the 19th century. It covers an area of about 50 hectares and forms the northern edge of the city and goes all the way down to Bergstrasse and up into the Leitha Mountains.

The park comprises four ponds (Leopoldine pond, Obelisk pond, Herzerl pond and Engine pond), uncounted exotic trees and bushes.

The Leopoldine Temple built by Moreau in 1806 is a circular temple with Egyptian-style columns erected right above the Leopoldine pond. Inside the temple there is the statue of "Leopoldine", made in 1805 by the famous Italian sculptor Antonio Canova.

Orangery and its grounds

A number of Mediterranean plants, such as pomegranates, olive trees or figs but mainly citrus fruits were being cultivated north of the Alps as early as the middle of the 16th Century C.E.

The name Orangery (ital. "Limonaia") originally only denoted the plant collection itself, shows the outstanding ranking of the oranges within the framework of any plant collection.

Of the about 20 different species of citrus fruits that come from western China and south east Asia, only 3 were known to Europe at the time.
The Orangery in Eisenstadt is one of the most important greenhouse structures in Austria dating back to this era.

The Orangery is known for its rich collection of plants, its size and its variety of green houses. The Eisenstadt Orangery is among the most important ones in Europe. The plant collection used to be one of the most impressive collections around, and is mentioned in numerous reports of contemporaries.
The ravages of war and the destructions of 1969 only spared the Orangery house and its central octagonal pavilion, the biggest and most prominent buildings of the grounds. These parts are only a portion of the original greenhouse grounds that have evolved over many decades and at different stages.
Due to damage incurred during the last world war, the eastern green houses were torn down and gave way to tennis courts.

On two terraces to the north of the Orangery were other green houses and horticultural areas that survived the last war, but were no longer used. They went to ruins, were later devastated and finally torn down completely in 1969.

Orangery Ground Floor:

The ground floor of the Orangery presents good examples of the plants and garden design principles that used to be in fashion during historicism: it features yew trees that used to be tapered, blue spruce and Caucasian firs.

Leopoldine Temple

The excavation necessary for the pond began in 1817. The project was completed in 1824, including the rock and the horticulture. In 1966, after the waterline to Müllendorf was destroyed, the pond was largely covered again with earth from necessary excavations.

The former shape was recognisable in the ground structure of a newly planted grass area. Over the course of restorations that took place between 1993 and 1997 the former pond was excavated once more.

Garden archaeological preparations were needed to verify the pond's floor was made leak proof and the construction of the scarp walls was excavated. The shore, scarp walls and rock rims were renewed and restored, respectively.
The pond could be filled again after the artesian source on the western edge of the pond was revived and the Buchgraben water line was refurbished. It could only be completed once a new waterline will have been installed.
The temple was begun in 1818.

In 1819 the columns were set up and the edifice was first referred to as Leopoldinen Temple.

In 1821 the terrazzo floors were made and in 1823 the temple was painted on the inside. Already during the building period, there were problems with humidity. These problems necessitated that there be windows in the building that were not planned.

Air vents had to be put in at floor level and on the base of the cupola.

The temple underwent major restorations between 1995 and 1997.

At this time a copy of the original statue of Leopoldine, the "Principessa Leopoldina Esterházy", was put inside the temple, too.

The creator of the statue, the Venetian Antonio Canova (1757 - 1822) was the most famous sculptor of classicism in Europe. The artist charged 1200 Zechines for the statue.

The artist himself admitted that he only charged 200 Zechines less than he did for the world famous portrait of Paolina Borghese.

This showed how immensely proud the artist was of his work. When the statue first arrived in Vienna in 1818, it was placed inside the greenhouse of the Palais Esterházy in Vienna Mariahilf.

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