The Habsburgs' Ancestral Homeland # 2024

Long before Habsburg became the name of a European ruling dynasty, it was the name of a castle in Further Austria, in what is now Switzerland. According to legend, the name is derived from the bird “Habicht” (hawk), and the castle still stands today at an altitude of 500 meters on the so-called Wülpelsberg. The Habsburgs, as they later came to be known, resided here until the 13th century. Their center then shifted to Vienna after Rudolf I conquered the city from his adversary Premysl Ottokar and killed him two years later in the Battle of Dürnkrut.

In this new production of “Erbe Österreich”, designer Alexander Frohner recounts the history of the Habsburgs and their connections to present-day Switzerland. The ties were never completely severed – Muri Abbey in Aargau is like a baroque island, reminiscent of the splendor of the great imperial monasteries and abbeys in the Habsburg Empire. After the end of the monarchy, Emperor Charles' children remembered their Aargau homeland and donated a new family crypt in Muri Abbey. The hearts of the last Austrian imperial couple, Karl and Zita, also rest here.