Imperial summer retreat

Weilburg Castle

General on leave grows roses

Archduke Charles, a younger brother of Emperor Francis I, proves early on to be an excellent military talent despite his weak constitution. A talent which can never fully develop since his imperial brother is fastidious in having Charles submit to his orders.

Although Archduke Charles inflicts the first defeat on Napoleon at Aspern in 1809, he loses the Battle of Wagram a few weeks later. In the peace negotiations that follow, Emperor Francis finds that Charles is acting too independently and deposes him as commander-in-chief.

Charles withdraws to private life. Financially independent thanks to a generous inheritance from his adoptive parents Duke Albert and Maria Christina of Saxony and Teschen, he has a grand castle and grounds built near Baden at the entrance to the Helenental valley in honour of his spouse Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg, to whom he is wed in 1815.

It is incidentally a truly loving marriage between Henrietta and 26-year-old Charles – this is quite apparent from their correspondence – which results in 7 children. Henrietta has a very strong personality and refuses to convert from the Protestant faith to Catholicism, thus becoming the first non-Catholic wife of a Habsburg.

It is also Henrietta who introduces the Protestant tradition of putting up a Christmas tree to the Imperial Court. A custom which quickly spreads throughout Austria. When Henrietta dies of scarlet fever at only 32 she is also the only Protestant to be buried in the Capuchin Crypt, despite hefty resistance. Emperor Francis said, “She lived with us in love, she should be laid to rest in love below us.”

Weilburg Castle, which is named after her, was one of the most important examples of Neoclassicism in Austria. The famed architect Josef Kornhäusl is commissioned and the construction, with a front length of 187m, is ready to move into in 1823.The castle with its extravagant water supply and lavatories is also one of the most modern buildings of its time.

Here amongst his family Charles devotes himself to his many interests. He becomes one of the most significant military writers of the 19th century and starts cultivating roses. In 1834, Baden’s famous cure doctor and enthusiastic naturalist Anton Rollett counts 1,620 different varieties in the grounds at Weilburg Castle.

At the end of WW2 vast areas of Weilburg Castle are destroyed by fire. The remaining ruins are torn down in 1964 and the area used for housing. All that has remained is the Habsburg-Nassau coat of arms. It is enthroned on a stone plinth on the western edge of Baden, where the footpath branches off towards the Rauheneck ruins.

Nevertheless the connection to present-day Baden is evident, even though the tradition of growing roses has been continued at Baden’s Rosarium from 1969. Another parallel: the Rosarium is in Doblhoff Park, named after the Doblhoff family, the former owners of Weikersdorf Castle. It is from the Doblhoffs that Archduke Charles procures the land on which he has Weilburg Castle built.