Explore Eisenstadt

Eisenstadt Cathedral, dedicated to St Martin, is a late Gothic hall church built from 1460 as a fortified church and completed in 1522. Rebuilt after a fire in 1589, it became the cathedral of the new Diocese of Eisenstadt in 1960. Inside are a high altar painting by Stephan Dorfmeister and an organ built in 1778 to Joseph Haydn's directions.

The Haydn House in Joseph-Haydn-Gasse was the home of the composer Joseph Haydn from 1766 to 1778, while he was Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court. The 16th-century town house, rebuilt in 1747, holds a museum on his private life and work, with rooms, instruments and documents, and a small herb garden at the back.

Esterházy Palace stands on the site of a medieval castle in the centre of Eisenstadt and has belonged to the Esterházy family since the 17th century. Carlo Martino Carlone rebuilt it as a Baroque residence from 1663. Joseph Haydn served the princes here from 1761, and the former great hall, now the Haydn Hall, is used for concerts.

The Bergkirche is a Baroque pilgrimage church in Eisenstadt, begun in 1715 for Prince Paul Esterházy and consecrated in 1803, with a round interior under a dome fresco of 1772. Joseph Haydn's tomb lies in a marble mausoleum built in 1932 under its north tower, and the church adjoins a Calvary of 1701 with grottoes and over 200 Baroque figures.

St. Margarethen Quarry is one of Austria's oldest working stone quarries, west of Lake Neusiedl. Its sandstone was used for Roman Carnuntum and later for St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Karlskirche and buildings on Vienna's Ringstrasse. It is part of the Fertő/Neusiedlersee World Heritage cultural landscape, with sculptures from symposia held since 1959 and an outdoor opera stage.