Tiberius Auctions

In Vienna-Hadersdorf on the outskirts of Vienna, in the idyllic valley of the Mauerbach, stands the only moated castle in the city today: Schloss Laudon, which was known as “Schloss Hadersdorf” until the 20th century. The first documented mention of the estate dates back to 1130, when it was the seat of the noble Heydersdorff family. Around 1440, Duke Wilhelm of Austria converted it into a hunting lodge. After the first Turkish siege of Vienna, during which the castle was severely damaged, it was pawned to the glass manufacturer Nicolaus Piti. He redesigned the ruins into a Renaissance-style castle. Only ten years later, he returned it to the Court Chamber, as his plan to build a large glass factory here was unsuccessful.

From 1551, Andreas von Teuffenbach, provincial administrator of Styria and forest master in Austria, was lord of Hadersdorf. He extended the estate. After several changes of ownership, the estate was acquired in 1655 by Court Chamber President David Ungnad Gravon Weissenwolf for Empress Eleonore, the second wife of Ferdinand III. She had the palace repaired, equipped the park with fountains and had a pavilion built on the small island in the extended moat, as an engraving by Vischer from 1672 clearly shows. The palace fell victim to the second Turkish siege in 1683 and was soon rebuilt by Andreas Schellerer, the Palatinate-Neuburg resident in Vienna, as an early Baroque moated palace surrounded by pleasant gardens. In April 1708, Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick, the mother of Maria Theresa, spent two nights here before her marriage to Charles III, then King of Spain and later Holy Roman Emperor (Charles VI). A commemorative plaque in Latin inscription on the grand staircase of the palace commemorates this event: “Here the Spanish queen stayed two nights before the day on which she happily married Charles. This momentous presence brought forth great splendor. Therefore, this house is dear to us.” In 1744, Franz Wilhelm Schellerer was the sole owner of the castle and designed the last uniform renovation, which has remained unchanged to this day.

Finally, in 1776, Field Marshal Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon bought the castle with financial support from Empress Maria Theresa. Laudon lived from 1717 to 1790. He entered the service of Empress Maria Theresa in 1742, was victorious against the Prussians under Frederick the Great and finally drove the Turks out of Belgrade in 1789. Laudon was a great patron of the arts and sciences and spent the last years of his life in this castle. It was artistically furnished under his direction. He died in 1790 without any direct descendants, but his widow Klara lived in the castle until 1806. The castle remained in the possession of the family of the field marshal’s brother until 1925. After the collapse of the Austrian monarchy, the Laudon family retreated to their Bistritz estate in Moravia and sold the castle to the industrial magnate Dr. Otto Pollak Edler von Parnegg. After his death in 1937, he was laid to rest in the castle chapel.

After 1945, the property served as a Russian commandant’s office for ten years. During this time, it was heavily devastated. After being returned to the heirs of the last legal owner, the palace was sold to the Viennese archdiocese in 1958, which sold it to KR Consul Alfred Weiss, the owner of the Viennese “Arabia” coffee roasting company, in 1960. After decades of decay, this marked the beginning of a new phase in the transformation of the property, which had been severely damaged during the years of occupation. In the spirit of Laudon, Consul Weiss initiated a profound renovation and splendid furnishing with all the achievements of modern times. Guests from all over the world were able to experience a touch of its grand past in the luxury hotel Schloss Laudon without having to do without the comforts of the 20th century. In the course of this renovation, the Viennese garden architect Oskar Wladar was commissioned to redesign the castle’s surroundings, especially the small park known as the “Botanical Garden”. In 1963, the frescoes painted by the famous Baroque master Johann Bergl, which were saved in 1954 when Donaudorf Castle was demolished during the construction of the Ybbs-Persenbeug power station, were transferred to the ballroom on the second floor of Laudon Castle in cooperation with the Monuments Office. These frescoes show depictions of the four continents known at the time and Maria Theresa as the ruler of these four continents.

Exquisite works of art, collected with much love and expertise by Consul Weiss, adorned the halls, rooms and corridors of the palace for decades. The subsequent lords of the castle also acquired art and antiques to furnish the rooms until the end. These works of art and antiques, some of which are magnificent, will be auctioned off by the auction house TIBERIUS-AUCTIONS in Vienna on July 2, 2024.