Excursion to Eisenstadt

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Our last destination was Eisenstadt. We took the underground to Hauptbahnhof station, went to the bus terminal and soon found the bus which would go to Eisenstadt. As expected, the bus ran through small towns, little villages and countryside. It brought us to the town centre of Eisenstadt at 10:30.



Eisenstadt, located near the Hungarian border, has been known as the home of one of the greatest composers – Joseph Haydn. There were a number of places named after him – Haydn Café, Haydn Hotel and Haydn Restaurant. Many buildings such as the Old Town Hall and Dominickirche looked very picturesque, and I fell in love with the town.



We visited Haydn House, Klostergasse where Haydn and his wife, Aloisia lived for twelve and a half years. As well as some of the original documents, portraits of Haydn’s family and the restored principle rooms, there were a number of composer’s notes, motets and oratorios which included “Die Schopfung (The Creation)” and “Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons)”. We were also shown the interactive film of how Haydn produced the National Anthem for the Austria, the tune of which later became the National Anthem of Germany. It was a very atmospheric – we quite enjoyed looking round the Haydn’s house.

Various types of souvenirs, e.g. CDs, T-shirts, books, cards were sold in the shop.



After the lunch, we went to Esterhazy Palace. As we had visited Haydn’s house, we had decided to stroll through historic rooms. All rooms were decorated with the Esterhazy’s family’s possessions, some original furniture, displays of the pottery and original features of the interior design, e.g. trace of the murals. We were also shown the views of lush parklands and garden from the large windows. We admired the beautiful concert hall, Haydn Hall with splendid frescoes depicting scenes from the “Metamorphoses” of the Roman philosopher and poet, Lucius Apuleium (200 AD) such as the tale of “Cupid and Psyche”.



Little is know that one of the greatest Hungarian composers, Liszt was born near Eisenstadt. We found his statue in front of Esterhazy Palace. We walked to the Bergkirche (named as Haydn Church) and looked at the marble sarcophagus with the inscription of “Haydn” in the Haydn Mausoleum. We also noted the “Neue Haydnorgel (New Haydn Organ)” and magnificent painting of the Ascension of Christ.



I bought a guide book with the map of historic buildings. We really liked the picturesque street and buildings in Eisenstadt. We would like to visit there again in the near future.

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