Kaiserebersdorf Castle

Kaiserebersdorf Palace is a palace in the 11th district of Vienna, Simmering, at Kaiser-Ebersdorfer Straße 297.

At the site of the current Kaiserebersdorf Palace, there was originally a castle, first mentioned in a document in 1269. After it came into imperial possession in 1499 under Maximilian I, it was converted into a hunting and pleasure palace in the Renaissance style. Under the later Emperor Maximilian II, the first imperial menagerie was established in Kaiserebersdorf in 1552. This housed, among other things, Vienna's first elephant. However, the menagerie soon moved to the nearby Neugebäude Palace and later to Schönbrunn Palace. Even before the menagerie, there was a wolf enclosure on the grounds where wolves were kept for hunting.

Report from February 20, 1618, from Kaisersteinbruch to the Lower Austrian Lords Commissioners, written by Rentmeister Johann Miller: ...the six masters, namely Ulrich Payoß, Pietro de Magistris, Leonhardt Holzäpfel, Nicola Nuovo, Andre Ruffini and Antonius Bregno, all of whom are Italian, four masters of His Imperial Majesty ... are now building a main gate at Ebersdorf.

Despite extensive renovations under Leopold I at the end of the 17th century, Kaiserebersdorf Palace was nevertheless inhabited less and less frequently by the Habsburgs. Larger palaces were preferred. Subsequently, the palace was used in various ways. Under Maria Theresia, the palace was used as a poorhouse from 1745 to 1773.

Joseph II had it converted into a barracks for artillery in 1773. Subsequently (from 1868), infantry of the Imperial and Royal Army was stationed here. In 1883, the uniform depot moved in and remained here until 1920.

From the late 1920s, the former imperial residence was finally used only as a juvenile correctional facility. Since 1975, Kaiserebersdorf Palace has housed a correctional facility, the Simmering Correctional Institution.