Schloss Marchegg is a baroque palace in Marchegg in Lower Austria. As one of the five castles of Marchfeld, it was chosen as the seat of the Lower Austria Provincial Exhibition in 2022. To this end, the castle is completely revitalized and restored.
The former hunting grounds were a designated nature reserve for 40 years, which is managed by the WWF. Adjacent to the castle park, from mid-March to mid-August, it is possible to observe the largest nesting colony of white storks in Central Europe
Schloss Marchegg History
The original castle was built as a city fortress at the northwest corner of the city walls after the Battle of Groissenbrunn, in which Ottocaro II defeated the Hungarian king Béla IV, and had to provide protection on the border with Hungary. The first written mention of the castle dates back to 1346.
For the first time the castle and the city were conquered in the years 1426 and 1427 in the ussite wars.
In 1502 Count Niklas Salm received the castle as a pledge. The same Marchegg was burned during the first Turkish siege; The castle was not taken, but also badly damaged. Thanks to the help provided by the Psalms in the defense of Vienna, the heirs were also confirmed in possession of the pledge. Count Niklas Salm died in 1530 in the nearby Salmhof. It was only in 1568 that the castle was again made habitable by his son Salms. At the beginning of the 17th century, however, the castle was already devastated by the Hungarian rebels.
In 1621, the president of the Hungarian court chamber, Count Paul Pállfy von Erdöd of Ferdinand II, obtained the castle as a pledge for the time being and as private property two years later. Pálffy also managed to acquire large estates in nearby Malatzka. The Marchegg castle was demolished with the exception of a tower and rebuilt as a castle with a quadrangular ditch according to the plans of the imperial engineer and the captain of the mine Lambert Lambion. However, the planned ramparts and ravelins were not built.
On behalf of the Hungarian palatine Nikolaus Pálffy, the master builder Christian Alexander Oedtl performed a baroque version of the castle around 1715. Meanwhile, the moat was filled. The corner bastion has also been removed. The southern front has received its current appearance.
For the next two centuries, the castle was mainly a hunting lodge and a summer residence. Frequent hunting guests included Emperor Joseph II, Maria Teresa or Francesco Stefano di Lorena.
Karl Graf Pálffy was elevated to the rank of prince in 1807.
After the Second World War, the castle itself was heavily devastated and the inventory stolen. In 1947, with the death of Ladislaus Pálffy, the Marchegger line of the Pálffy family became extinct.
In 1957, the city of Marchegg, with the help of the province of Lower Austria, bought the castle after it had already been demolished. From the land it was established in 1959 in two renovated boardrooms, the Lower Austria hunting museum. However, when stocks were concentrated in the Landesmuseum in 2000, the exhibition in Marchegg was closed. [1] From 2010, an exhibition of the Marchegg city "From King Ottokar to Prince Pálffy" is performed. It is open every year from April to October and can be visited from Thursday to Monday. From the next flood protection dam there is an impressive view of the white stork colonies, which nest on the castle chimneys and on the trees in the castle park or in the Marchauen of the Marchegg nature reserve.
June 5th. In 2018 it was announced that the Niederösterreichische Landesausstellung 2022 will be held in Marchegg. The decisive factor was that the historic Schloss Marchegg celebrates its 750th anniversary. For the exhibition, the castle will be extensively renovated by about 15 million.