The Palace Park, with the Leopoldinen Temple and the Orangery at the heart of it, is a jewel.

The Palace Park is one of the most important landscaped gardens dating back to the 19th century. It covers an area of about 50 hectares and forms the northern edge of the city and goes all the way down to Bergstrasse and up into the Leitha Mountains.

The park comprises four ponds (Leopoldinen pond, Obelisk pond, Herzerl pond and Engine pond), uncounted exotic trees and bushes.

The Leopoldinen Temple built by Moreau in 1806 is a circular temple with Egyptian-style columns erected right above the Leopoldinen pond. Inside the temple there is the statue of "Leopoldine", made in 1805 by the famous Italian sculptor Antonio Canova.

Leopoldinen Temple:

The excavation necessary for the pond began in 1817. The project was completed in 1824, including the rock and the horticulture. In 1966, after the waterline to Müllendorf was destroyed, the pond was largely covered again with earth from necessary excavations.

The former shape was recognisable in the ground structure of a newly planted grass area. Over the course of restorations that took place between 1993 and 1997 the former pond was excavated once more.

Garden archaeological preparations were needed to verify the pond's floor was made leak proof and the construction of the scarp walls was excavated. The shore, scarp walls and rock rims were renewed and restored, respectively. 
The pond could be filled again after the artesian source on the western edge of the pond was revived and the Buchgraben water line was refurbished. It could only be completed once a new waterline will have been installed.
The temple was begun in 1818.

In 1819 the columns were set up and the edifice was first referred to as Leopoldinen Temple.

In 1821 the terrazzo floors were made and in 1823 the temple was painted on the inside. Already during the building period, there were problems with humidity. These problems necessitated that there be windows in the building that were not planned.

Air vents had to be put in at floor level and on the base of the cupola.

The temple underwent major restorations between 1995 and 1997.

At this time a copy of the original statue of Leopoldine, the "Principessa Leopoldina Esterházy", was put inside the temple, too.

The creator of the statue, the Venetian Antonio Canova (1757 - 1822) was the most famous sculptor of classicism in Europe. The artist charged 1200 Zechines for the statue.

The artist himself admitted that he only charged 200 Zechines less than he did for the world famous portrait of Paolina Borghese.

This showed how immensely proud the artist was of his work. When the statue first arrived in Vienna in 1818, it was placed inside the greenhouse of the Palais Esterházy in Vienna Mariahilf.

The Orangery and its grounds

A number of Mediterranean plants, such as pomegranates, olive trees or figs but mainly citrus fruits were being cultivated north of the Alps as early as the middle of the 16th Century C.E.

The name Orangery (ital. "Limonaia") originally only denoted the plant collection itself, shows the outstanding ranking of the oranges within the framework of any plant collection.

Of the about 20 different species of citrus fruits that come from western China and south east Asia, only 3 were known to Europe at the time.
The Orangery in Eisenstadt is one of the most important greenhouse structures in Austria dating back to this era.

The Orangery is known for its rich collection of plants, its size and its variety of green houses. The Eisenstadt Orangery is among the most important ones in Europe. The plant collection used to be one of the most impressive collections around, and is mentioned in numerous reports of contemporaries.
The ravages of war and the destructions of 1969 only spared the Orangery house and its central octagonal pavilion, the biggest and most prominent buildings of the grounds. These parts are only a portion of the original greenhouse grounds that have evolved over many decades and at different stages.
Due to damage incurred during the last world war, the eastern green houses were torn down and gave way to tennis courts.

On two terraces to the north of the Orangery were other green houses and horticultural areas that survived the last war, but were no longer used. They went to ruins, were later devastated and finally torn down completely in 1969.

Orangery Ground Floor:

The ground floor of the Orangery presents good examples of the plants and garden design principles that used to be in fashion during historicism: it features yew trees that used to be tapered, blue spruce and Caucasian firs.

Engine Pond, Engine House and Surroundings:

The obviously prosaic name of this beautiful building and pond announce their original purpose: the engine house used to contain the first Watt steam engine of the entire Habsburg Empire.

This fact impressed people at the time immensely.

The pond is the only water body in the park that is fed by natural sources and has already existed before the creation of the park.

Already in the time of the rococo gardens (around 1750) the pond was there, and water was being moved by means of a so-called "water machine".

Draught animals powered the engine that pumped water to the upper regions of the park where it was used to water the plants. 

The transformation of the rococo garden into a landscape garden entailed problems with the existing water machine, so in 1803 Prince Nikolaus II. bought the steam engine in London.

It was built according to the patent of Watt by a certain David Matson.

The Steam Engine

The steam engine was set up in 1804 inside the engine house, which Charles de Moreau erected on a floor plan patterned after a Greek cross.

The memory of the picturesque scenery is kept alive by the painting of Jean Baptist "Views of the Engine Pond".

It portrays the picture of a tree-lined lake with swans and a chapel.

The rapt ambience is furthermore underlined by "heroically festive" poplars and "melancholic" willows.

Behind the little tower in the centre of the building hides the smokestack of the steam engine. The latest technology "hides" in the cloak of the chapel, which gave it a "sacred" cover.

This was where the engine that pointed the way into the future was housed, the engine that kept up the life-giving flow of water to other locations in the park.

The engine was more than a luxury article - it showed that the garden was also an experimental area for new technologies.

Effects, functionality and efficacy of the machine could be tested without any economic implications. The engine symbolises thus the advent of the industrial age, an age that may have seemed utopian at the time.

Reports mention the admiration contemporaries had for both the engine house and the Orangery and its collection of plants.

Obelisk Pond Surroundings

This park pond is located in the upper portion of the park. It got its name after the Obelisk that had been put next to the pond in 1871. It was first fed by the Buchgraben water line and later by the engine pond. The steam engine acquired in 1803 pumped water all the way up the hill to supply this pond with water. The pond was used as water reservoir and water was distributed from this pond to the lower lying horticultural areas of the park. The first water line was built to the Orangery, and a second one was built in 1817. It led to the waterfall by the Leopoldinen temple that was under construction at the time. Only in 1991 was it possible to refill this pond. The Buchgraben water line and the pond's basin had been restored so it held water again. A little path leads through a densely planted forest-like area from the pond up the hill to the Obelisk.

The Obelisk

This obelisk was put up in memory of the wife of Prince Nikolaus III., Sarah Child-Villiers of Jersey, who died at the age of 31.  In ancient Egypt obelisks were an attribute to the sun god and it was rather common that victorious warlords put up obelisks to mark their successes in battle (i.e. Cesar in Rome, Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris). Obelisks carry a multitude of meanings: they are seen as sign of fire, of the sun, of princely glory, rational (Free Masons), of male reproductive capability or of defeat of death.

The Marien Temple, named after the Christian name of Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterházy, née Liechtenstein, was begun according to the plans of the architect and painter Charles de Moreau in 1804 and completed one year later.

The temple was referred to as Gloriette while it was still under construction and kept this name until today. In 1995 a fire destroyed large portions of the Gloriette.

Renovations with the aim to revitalise the Gloriette began in 1999 and finished in 2004 when there was a grand re-opening.