Schloss Hof Orangery (Orangerie Schloss Hof)

In 1725 Prince Eugene of Savoy bought the Renaissance castle of Schloss Hof, near the March river, which Friedrich von Pranckh had built around 1620, and commissioned Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt to turn it into a Baroque hunting lodge. For the estate the architect designed a pair of mirror-image orangeries, each fronted by a garden, built in 1729–30 north of the palace and beside the estate farm (Meierhof).

Maria Theresa acquired the estate in 1755, and it was enlarged in 1773–75 under Franz Anton Hillebrandt. The orangeries were then put to other uses: the west glasshouse became staff housing in 1757, the east glasshouse in the early 19th century.

The revitalisation of Schloss Hof, begun in the early 2000s, led to both buildings being rebuilt to their original appearance. Work on the orangery took two years and nearly four million euros, turning an overgrown ruin back into a working glasshouse, which reopened on 10 May 2007. The press release issued for the occasion described it as the oldest European glasshouse preserved in its original form and function. Reconstruction of the Baroque garden was completed in 2019.

The two orangeries form a mirrored pair, each with its own garden in front. Their south sides are built entirely of wood and glass, and the operator describes them as cutting-edge glasshouse architecture for their time.

The restored building is 40 metres long with an internal height of 7 metres, which places it among the largest Baroque glasshouses in Europe. Its continuous lead-glazed window front is presented by the operator as the largest of its kind surviving in Europe today.

The most remarkable element is out of sight: an underground warm-air heating system. Furnaces in buried chambers heat the air, which a system of ducts then distributes into the hall. According to the estate, it is the only underground warm-air heating system of its kind to survive and be put back into operation, and it still works today.

The orangery follows the practice of Prince Eugene's day: tub plants spend the winter in the east glasshouse and are moved out in summer to the orangery garden in front of the building.

At the 2007 reopening the collection brought together the plants of a subtropical Baroque orangery: orange trees, olives, columnar cypresses, agaves, pistachio trees and cacti. In winter, the plant collection associated with Prince Eugene consists of potted citrus and pomegranate trees together with many other exotic species; visitors can enter on every opening day, which brings a Mediterranean atmosphere into the cold season.

Schloss Hof lies east of Vienna in the municipality of Engelhartstetten (Gänserndorf district), close to the March, the river that forms the border with Slovakia. The orangery stands in the northern part of the estate, next to the estate farm.

A visit combines naturally with the fully reconstructed seven-terrace Baroque garden and with the farm, home to some 200 animals, including Carinthian spectacled sheep, white donkeys, Catalan giant donkeys, Bactrian camels, alpacas and llamas. Winter is a rewarding season, since the citrus trees are then indoors and on view under glass.