Eisenstadt

   With the incorporation of the Burgenland into Austria after the end of World War I, Eisenstadt in 1925 became the provincial capital. Before then, the city and the Burgenland itself were part of the kingdom of Hungary. During World War II, the Nazi regime in Austria revoked the region’s provincial status altogether. Eisenstadt resumed its position as a capital after the conflict. Prehistoric settlement of the site dates from the Hallstatt culture of the first millennium BCE. Roman artifacts have been turned up there as well. The first documentary mention of the later Eisenstadt is as “minor Martin” (Hung.: Kismárton) in a Magyarized Latin text from 1264. In 1373, it was called “Eisenstat.” By 1388 it had become a market.

   The Habsburg Archduke Albrecht VI (1418–1463) acquired Eisenstadt in 1445, and for the next 200 years it was in Habsburg hands, though the dynasty mortgaged the town in 1622. In 1648, it was acquired as part of a land grant made by the Habsburgs as kings of Hungary to the Hungarian magnate family of Esterházy. A grandiose palace built by the Esterházys dominates the center of the city to this day. Eisenstadt became a royal Hungarian free city. From 1761 to 1790, the composer Franz Joseph Haydn was the chapel choir director of the family. In this position, he wrote not only at the command of the house, but privately as well. A substantial portion of his voluminous output dates from his years of employment in the Esterházy Palace.