Mayerling

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This article is about the village of Mayerling . For other uses, see Mayerling (disambiguation).

Hunting lodge and Carmelites church at Mayerling

Mayerling is a small village (pop: 200) in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat River, in the Wienerwald (Vienna woods), 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Vienna. From 1550, it was in the possession of the abbey of Heiligenkreuz.

1 The Mayerling Incident
2 See also
3 In culture
4 External links

[edit] The Mayerling Incident

For main article, see Mayerling Incident

In 1886 Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown acquired the manor and transformed it into a hunting lodge. It was in this hunting lodge that, on January 30, 1889, he was found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, apparently as a result of suicide. Exactly what happened is clouded in mystery.

After the deaths of Prince Rudolf and Baroness Vetsera, the Emperor Franz Joseph, who wanted to found a new church, had the building turned into a convent which was consequently settled by nuns of the Discalced Carmelite Order.

Today the lodge is a museum and tourist attraction in Austria.