The Katterburg. The History of Schönbrunn up to 1683

Research project P 14326 The Katterburg. The History of Schoenbrunn up to 1683. Artur ROSENAUER 08.05.2000 The research project currently being submittetd concerns Schönbrunn Palace, probably the most outstanding palatial building in Austria, which was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1996. Since 1993, the palace and its ancillary buildings together with further architectural structures in the palace grounds have been undergoing a programme of restoration funded by a budget of over one billion Austrian schillings. This programme included the building work carried out on the ground floor of the palace in 1994/95, during the course of which foundation walls were uncovered that were subsequently identified as belonging to various structures that predated the present palace. These finds were a complete surprise in that research up to that date had assumed that the previous documented structures had been sited considerably further to the east of the palace started in 1696 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The foundation structures revealed how little research had been done on the history of Schönbrunn before Fischer`s von Erlach palace was built. In October 1996, a project was submitted to the Austrian Science Fund whose aim was to systematically collate and evaluate all the relevant documentary and pictorial sources pertaining to Schönbrunn up to the time of the second Turkish siege in 1683. This project, scheduled to take two years, was authorised in March 1997 and completed in June 1999. Because of the unexpected abundance of the source material discovered, a proposal for a second project intended as a continuation of the first is being submitted with the aim of interpreting this source material critically and then elaborating a comprehensive account of the history of Schönbrunn from its first documented appearance to 1683. The focus of this project will be on elucidating the history of ownership and use of this estate, originally known as Katterburg, the identification of its sites, its successive expansion and the documentation of the structures found on this site. Related questions such as those of the Grund- und Dorfherrschaft (quasi-feudal relations of dominion, jurisdiction and exploitation), the local history of Meidling and the watermills in this area as well as the organisation of the court building projects and the administration of the imperial estates will also be treated. Comparison with the other crown estate residences in Ebersdorf, Laxenburg, the Grünes Lusthaus in the Prater, the Neugebäude in Simmering and the Favorita in Wieden will also be made. The more than 500-year period covered by this project is divided into two main sections falling on either side of the year 1569, when the Katterburg came into sovereign possession of the crown under Emperor Maximilian II. Prior to this, from 1171/76 onwards, the crown estate monastery at Klosterneuburg had enjoyed the Grundherrschaft over this estate, which belonged to the jurisdiction of Meidling. This early period of Schönbrunn`s history has been the subject of conjectural hypotheses, most of which, as examination of the archival evidence showed, were incorrect. Only with the aid of these early sources can the site of the old Katterburg be estabilished and the principal conditions of ownership be elucidated. Concerning the history of this estate after the Katterburg had come into the possession of the monarch in 1659, new sources as well as the critical analysis of source material that is already known can add to and rectify the history of the Katterburg to a considerable extent with regard to existing literature on the subject. This pertains not only to the site of the buildings that existed at the Katterburg/Schönbrunn but also the documentation of the structures that were actually built. In addition, the source material provides insights into aspects of everyday life at the Katterburg and into the extent to which the subjects in the locality were affected by the establishment of the game preserve. This project is one in a series of already completed research projects on the history of Schönbrunn. The themes already treated include: "The inhabitants of Schönbrunn Palace in the 20th century" (Austrian National Bank No. 5302); "The building of the palace at Schönbrunn in the time of Maria Theresia" (FWF P-10828-HIS) and "The early history of Schönbrunn" (FWF P-12208-HIS); the latter project was the immediate predecessor to the project currently being submitted.