Rudolfsvilla

The Rudolfsvilla stands in Reichenau an der Rax in Lower Austria. It is a three-sided villa in Romantic Historicist style with Tudor-Gothic details, built above the Schwarza river. The villa replaced an earlier house on the same site in 1856–57 to plans by Anton Hefft for the Waißnix brothers. It overlooks a landscaped park that once belonged to the predecessor building. The villa gained fame when Emperor Franz Joseph I rented it from 1859 to 1864 for hunting trips in the Rax mountains. Empress Elisabeth sometimes accompanied him, giving rise to the nickname ‘Sisi-Schloss’. Crown Prince Rudolf and Archduchess Gisela spent summers here, and from 1867 to 1869 Archduke Carl Ludwig lived in the house. After 1870 it became an annexe of a nearby cold-water sanatorium designed by the same architect. An exhibition inside the villa recounts these episodes. Visitors find a two-storey villa whose façade is marked by narrow polygonal piers and a terracotta frieze. A gabled projection on the valley side carries an iron balcony, while the street front presents a small formal forecourt with a wrought-iron fence. At its centre stands a marble wall fountain topped by a bust of Franz Joseph, moved here from the old municipal theatre. The surrounding parkland, laid out for the earlier house, offers quiet walks beside the Schwarza.