Alterlaa Castle

Alterlaa Palace, also known as Erlaa Palace, is a palace in Liesing, the 23rd district of Vienna.

The Erlaa manor was first mentioned in a document in 1244. As can be seen from an engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer from 1672, the complex had already been expanded into a large four-winged palace in the 17th century. The palace chapel was consecrated in 1726 by the Archbishop of Vienna, Sigismund von Kollonitz. At this time, Alterlaa was owned by the Counts of Seillern. In 1765, Georg Adam von Starhemberg acquired the palace. From 1766 to 1770, it was presumably rebuilt in the late Baroque-Classical style according to plans by the court architect Nikolaus Pacassi. The palace park was also laid out under Georg Adam von Starhemberg. In 1805 and 1809, the troops of Napoléon Bonaparte, and in 1848, those of Joseph Jelačić von Bužim, were quartered in the palace. After 1880, a private hospital for poor patients was located in a part of the palace. In 1918, Alterlaa Palace came into the possession of Hans von Brenner, whose descendants are still the owners of the palace today. In 1919/20, another renovation took place, during which the front wing and the palace chapel were demolished, and among other things, the courtyard of honor and the wall on the front side were created.

Main Building

The palace is located at Erlaaer Straße 54, between the old village center of today's Erlaa district and the Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa, built in the 1970s and 1980s. Leading to the palace is a chestnut avenue, now Gregorygasse, aligned towards the imperial Schönbrunn Palace and under nature protection. The two-story main building has a high hip roof and two side wings grouped around a courtyard of honor. On the central wing, there is a grand staircase on both the side facing the courtyard of honor and the side facing the palace park. In the ground floor, cross-rib vaults from the turn of the 16th to the 17th century are preserved. The wooden paneling in some rooms on the upper floor dates from around 1770 and features rocaille carvings.

Palace Park

The extensive Erlaa Palace Park adjoins the main building to the south. It dates back to an English landscape garden laid out around 1770, which, despite a redesign in the 19th century, has retained its basic structure and is one of the oldest park facilities of its kind in Vienna. The park features artificially created watercourses with stepped waterfalls (cascades) and a grotto. An artificial ruin, a round temple, several stone benches, and remnants of bridges also date back to the 18th century.