Come with me if you want to live: In the halls of the once mighty house Eggenberg

Back again folks. Last blog was a little different so this time we return to the regular formula of me yapping about a place we’ve been to, and you turn green with envy, good. Good. So, last week we went to see one of the big sights in Graz that we had saved, Schloss Eggenberg. This is an old castle or mansion of the noble family Eggenberg who were prominent in Austria and in the surrounding countries in the 1400s - 1700s. The mansion and its large grounds were closed pretty far into the spring and we wanted to wait until summer is in full swing before going to the mansion and to see the yards and the gardens. The gardens had peacocks roaming around freely and they were all in spring mode, especially the boys. You could hear the male mating calls all around the premises, and we found a few who were showing off their large tail feathers to the females.

At the gates of the Schloss Eggenberg

Peak of the main building through the trees

The castle or mansion in my mind was having some repairs being done

One of the peacocks resting among the greenery

Anne took this picture and called it ocean of red

Mating season it seems

The actual mansion hosts two museums, a gallery and a floor of the state rooms of the Eggenberg family. The state rooms were clearly the best part and we took part in an hour-long tour of the state rooms. The rooms were the public rooms from the time the mansion was used by the Eggenberg family, but in the early 1800s the family was without a male heir, so the mansion moved to the husbands of the last princesses of the house Eggenberg. In a lucky way those husbands and their families had no use from the mansion in Graz and it was literally locked up for a hundred year, this is why so much of the mansion is reserved as it was when the Eggenberg family thrived. The state rooms had meeting room where the princes welcomed noble quests and held meetings. There were also some quest rooms, one of which was used by the emperor’s family when they were visiting Graz. All the rooms were covered with beautiful paintings and frescos depicting old legends and worked as the dos and don’ts of a ruler. This was by far the best exhibition on the grounds and totally worth a visit, especially on a pretty day.

The state rooms were really fancy and a joy to go through

Some romantic paintings

Paintings depicting hunting trips

Fancy chandeliers

Game and dance room had plenty of space

The main hall had a large fresco painted to the ceiling, showing a ruler ruling over the land

Main hall had many chandeliers and was the most impressive of the rooms

The other exhibitions were a little lackluster. The two museums were a coin gallery and an archeology museum. First problem with both of them was that all the information was only in German and.. yeah, we not that good at that, unfortunately. Luckily, they were not big, and we could walk through them in a couple of minutes. Last exhibition was Old Gallery where lots of paintings and other pieces of art were on display from the times of the Eggenberg family. Some of it was cool, but neither of us are big on art so we went through it rather quick too.

Still I totally recommend Eggenberg to anyone who visits Graz. It is not too far from town by tram and the grounds were beautiful, a perfect place for picnic even. Think that is all for this time, we’ll see again soon.