The castle’s nature-park is to be found on the list of those 56 historical Austrian gardens and parklands in the Federal Law for the Protection of Monuments, which are classified as worthy of the highest degree of protection.
Little is known of the earlier story of the park. Only with its acquisition by the “Floral-Emperor” Franz I in 1823 would it be more carefully documented. Emperor Franz and his wife Carolina Augusta are still present here today. From 1861 under Archduke Carl Ludwig a garden plan for landscape redesign was formed and in the main carried out. In essence it has been preserved down to the present day. The spaceous divisions, the construction of pathways and the chestnut avenue on the principles of geomancy with its two fountains that are presently being restored, are all certainly his work. Even one of the “Spuckmänner” was commissioned by Carl Ludwig.
Finally Archduke Franz Ferdinand took over the estate in 1889 and rebuilt it as a Summer and weekend residence until his assassination (Sarajevo 1914) with a prestigious driveway, garage, ancillary buildings and garden extensions to the north-east. The garden architect Jiri Molnar designed according to Franz Ferdinand’s own ideas a formal garden to the west of the castle and extended the park with the planting of trees that still flourish to this day.
