Eisenstadt History

History

Eisenstadt was first mentioned in 1264 (although archaeological digs have confirmed settlement since the Stone Age). At the time, the town was under control of the Hungarians, but it wasn’t until 1371 that it gained its charter from the ruling nobility. In the ensuing centuries the Hungarians and the Habsburgs fought for control of Eisenstadt, but it was the Turks who decided the town’s fate, by neutralising the Hungarian threat at the 1526 Battle of Mohäcs. In 1622 Eisenstadt became the residence of the Esterházys, a powerful Hungarian family, and in 1648 the town was granted the status of Freistadt (free city) by Ferdinand III. In 1925 it became the capital of Austria’s newest province.