BURGENLAND Are Content Toenjoygoodwineandfood,Relax Inthegreat Outdoors
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© Lonely Planet Publications 188 lonelyplanet.com BURGENLAND •• History 189 0 20 km who traded uneasy peace with outright war BURGENLAND 0 12 miles throughout the centuries. A22 S L O V A K IA The arrival of marauding Turks in the Burgenland 16th century quashed both the Hungarians Klosterneuburg LOWER AUSTRIA and the Austrian-Germans, and devastated VIENNA BRATISLAVA the local population. Landlords, without an- e Schwechat ub yone to tend their farms, invited substantial Dan Perchtoldsdorf numbers of Croats to settle. Their presence Schwechat Often given a wide berth by tourists, Burgenland is all but the typical Austria you hear of or Mödling Airport is still felt today – around 10% of the popu- A21 A4 read about. It has neither bombastic architecture nor deep lakes and soaring mountains. On Baden Breitenbrunn lation is Croatian, Croatian is a recognized Traiskirchen Neusiedl local language and a few small towns in the contrary, it is small and sleepy, and in large sections a flat province situated on the border Bad Vöslau A3 Purbach am See B10 am See middle Burgenland bear Croat signs. e with Hungary. Even the jewel in its crown – Neusiedler See – has dried up and disappeared A2 e Eisenstadt S With the defeat of the Turks at the gates r e Podersdorf Wiener l several times in its natural history – most recently in the mid-19th century. Wulka- d am See Rust e of Vienna in 1683 (p37 ), relative peace set- Neustadt i proders- s u To Semmering (20km); dorf e Illmitz tled over the area. With the demise of the Bruck an der Mur (73km) Mörbisch N This is the kind of place where everyday life takes precedence, but it is precisely this ‘every- Burg am See Apetlon Forchtenstein Habsburg empire after WWI Austria lost Forchtenstein St Margareten Seewinkel day’ aspect that makes it interesting. The province receives a reputed 300 days of sunshine Neunkirchen Sopron control of Hungary, but managed to retain a year; couple this with a rich soil base and a wine history dating back to pre-Roman times, S6 S31 the German-speaking western region of Raiding Hungary under the Treaty of St Germain. and you have Austria’s best wine-producing region. What better way to spend an afternoon H U N G A R Y A2 Oberpullendorf The new province of Burgenland was born, than sampling local Weine (wines) in a Heuriger (wine tavern) under a warm sun? Throw in but Hungary was loath to lose Ödenburg B50 B61 the shallow Neusiedler See and a section of it that is now the Neusiedler See-Seewinkel Lockenhaus Klostermarienberg (Sopron) to Austria, and a plebiscite held in Geschriebenstein National Park, tack on a bike path that leads into the park and through Hungary before re- Bernstein (884m) December 1921 (under controversial circum- Bad Tatzmannsdorf emerging in Austria, and add a swampy, medieval town such as Rust, and you might find stances) resulted in the people of Ödenburg BURGENLAND Oberwart opting to stay in Hungary. Burgenland lost yourself fascinated by Burgenland’s charms. Hartberg Szombathely its natural capital, and Eisenstadt became Stork-spotters will be in their element here in summer, when feathered friends populate the new Hauptstadt (capital). To Graz the roofs of several towns near the lake – including Rust, one of the nicest places to observe (45km) Gerersdorf Güssing BURGENLAND BURGENLAND Climate them. Although it does have a handful of interesting cultural sights, such as Schloss Ester- Fürstenfeld STYRIA The Pannonian microclimate of hot sum- házy in Eisenstadt, the province’s small capital, Burgenland is more a place where people mers and mild winters is perfect for wine are content to enjoy good wine and food, and relax in the great outdoors. production. The Neusiedler See, to the north of the province, consistently records some of the highest summer temperatures S L O V E N I A in Austria, but the large expanse of water HIGHLIGHTS ensures high humidity. Sipping golden wines and supping in one of Burgenland’s pretty Heurigen ( p194 ), dotted Eisenstadt Language Neusiedler See History across Burgenland With its close proximity to Hungary, it’s Neusiedler See - Burgenland is the youngest of Austria’s prov- Seewinkel no surprise that some Burgenlanders speak Swimming, splashing or sailing in the Neusie- National Park inces, arising after the collapse of the Austrian dler See ( p193 ), Austria’s slurping steppe lake empire at the end of WWI. It’s so named for German with a slight Hungarian accent. Burgenland is the only province to include Cycling at a leisurely pace through the the ‘burg’ suffix of the four western Hungarian district names at that time – Pressburg Croatian and Hungarian alongside German Neusiedler See- Seewinkel National Park as official languages. ( p197 ), a haven for birdlife (Bratislava), Wieselburg (Moson), Ödenburg (Soporn) and Eisenburg (Vasvär). Staring into the face of the mummified The region was first settled some 7000 Getting There & Away Roman legionnaire Constantine on a grand to 12,000 years ago, and over the ensuing Eisenstadt and the northern extension of tour of Schloss Esterházy ( p191 ) in the millennia many peoples tried their hand at Neusiedler See are easily reached by train capital, Eisenstadt settling permanently, including the Illyrians, from Vienna and Lower Austria. Lower Revelling in views from Eisenstadt’s Celts and Romans. However, the arrival of and middle Burgenland are less accessible Bergkirche ( p191 ) after completing the the Hungarians in the 10th century changed by train; here the bus is often your best op- Stations of the Cross the face of Burgenland forever. The region tion. The A2 autobahn, heading south from soon became a buffer zone between the Vienna towards Graz and Carinthia, runs POPULATION: 279,300 AREA: 3966 SQ KM HIGHEST ELEVATION: GESCHRIEBENSTEIN 884M Hungarians and the Austrian-Germans, parallel to the western border of Burgenland. 190 BURGENLAND •• Eisenstadt lonelyplanet.com lonelyplanet.com BURGENLAND •• Eisenstadt 191 Its many off-ramps provide quick, easy rather than buzzes, but taking in its sights can ern, uninteresting urban sprawl. It’s about rated the second-best concert hall in Austria, access to much of the province. easily be done on a day trip from Vienna or as a 10-minute walk north along Bahnstrasse after Vienna’s Musikverein). During Haydn’s an excursion from pretty, lakeside Rust. from the train station. The main bus station employment by the Esterházys from 1761 to Getting Around is on Domplatz, one block south of the Haupt- 1790, he conducted an orchestra on a near- Like the rest of Austria, destinations not con- History strasse. The tourist office’s brochure map is nightly basis in this hall. nected to the country’s train network are cov- Eisenstadt was first mentioned in 1264 (al- useful for getting around town. After that you view the palace chapel, com- ered by bus. From late April to October, ferries though archaeological digs have confirmed pleted in 1740 and now containing the remains ply the Neusiedler See, linking Podersdorf settlement since the Stone Age). At the time, Information of Constantine ‘Conny’ the Martyr, a mum- with Rust and Breitenbrunn, and Illmitz with the town was under control of the Hungarians, INTERNET ACCESS mified Roman legionnaire who converted to Mörbisch ( p193 ). but it wasn’t until 1371 that it gained its char- Ricky’s Cafe (%65 88 1; Pfarrgasse 18; h9.30am-2pm) Christianity and was given to the Esterházys Burgenland is a cyclist’s dream – much of ter from the ruling nobility. In the ensuing by Pope Innocent XI for services in fighting the landscape is flat or has gentle rolling hills – centuries the Hungarians and the Habsburgs MEDICAL SERVICES the Turks. (He’s in a glass case and looks like and is crisscrossed with well-marked cycle fought for control of Eisenstadt, but it was Hospital & Pharmacy (%601; Esterházystrasse 26) he could do with a stiff Turkish coffee.) paths. Local tourist offices can supply cycle the Turks who decided the town’s fate, by Josef Haydn said that Eisenstadt was ‘where maps, or simply log on to www.bikeburgen neutralising the Hungarian threat at the 1526 MONEY I wish to live and to die’. He achieved the land.at, in German. Battle of Mohäcs. In 1622 Eisenstadt became There are a number of banks with ATMs on former, being a resident for 31 years, but it was the residence of the Esterházys, a powerful the Hauptstrasse and along its side streets. in Vienna that he finally tinkled his last tune. EISENSTADT Hungarian family, and in 1648 the town was He also rather carelessly neglected to give any %02682 / pop 12,000 granted the status of Freistadt (free city) by POST directive about his preferred residence after The small capital of Burgenland is perhaps Ferdinand III. In 1925 it became the capital Main Post Office (%62 27 10; Ignaz-P-Semmelweis- death. His skull was stolen from a temporary best known for its most famous former resi- of Austria’s newest province. Gasse 7) grave shortly after he died in 1809, after which dent, 18th-century musician and composer it ended up on display in a Viennese museum. Josef Haydn. Although it doesn’t have a large Orientation TOURIST INFORMATION The headless cadaver was subsequently re- number of attractions for visitors, it does have Eisenstadt’s pretty Altstadt (old town), cen- Burgenland Tourismus (%0633 84-0; www.burgen turned to Eisenstadt (in 1932), but it wasn’t BURGENLAND a wonderful palace, a couple of good museums tred on the pedestrian-only Hauptstrasse and land.info; Schloss Esterházy, Eisenstadt; h8.30am-5pm until 1954 that the skull re-joined it. and a rather bizarre church.