Schloss Klessheim

Schloss Klessheim is a Baroque mansion in Wals-Siezenheim, Austria, about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) west of Salzburg. In 1700, Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach planned and built the mansion for Prince-Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun. It was converted into the summer palace of the Archbishops of Salzburg. Salzburg Casino has been using the castle since 1993.

Prince-Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun bought the tiny aristocratic estate and Kleshof manor house on this site in the late 17th century. He commissioned Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach to extend the manor house and build a magnificent mansion in 1700. Between 1700 and 1709, Fischer von Erlach worked on the Lustschloss Favorita palace, which was influenced by the north Italian Mannerist style. Following the death of the archbishop in 1709, construction was halted. Archbishop Franz Anton von Harrach, his successor, canceled work in favor of Schloss Mirabell. Schloss Klessheim was finished in 1732 by Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, who considerably reduced the original designs.

A ceremonial hall with an enlarged terrace and ramp leading to the gardens, an entry with a magnificent Triton Fountain, a loggia, and an entrance hall and stairway comprised the finished palace. Paolo d’Allio and Diego Francesco Carlone completed the interior stucco work, which was designed by Fischer von Erlach.

Archbishop Count Hieronymus von Colloredo constructed an English landscape park in the late 18th century. After the secularization of Salzburg in 1803, Klessheim Palace passed to the Austrian House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria (1842-1919), Emperor Franz Joseph I’s younger brother, made it his permanent residence in 1866. The archduke had the mansion expanded using drawings by Heinrich von Ferstel and died here in 1919. The palace was sold to the Austrian state of Salzburg by his Habsburg successors.

Following the Austrian Anschluss in 1938, Adolf Hitler used Schloss Klessheim for conferences and to entertain official guests such as Benito Mussolini, Miklós Horthy, Ion Antonescu, Jozef Tiso, and Ante Paveli while residing at his neighboring Berghof estate. While Horthy was still at Klessheim, Hitler covertly ordered Operation Margarethe to conquer Hungary and compel the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz on March 19, 1944. On 7 July 1944, during a weapons show, an effort by numerous Wehrmacht officers gathered around von Stauffenberg to assassinate Hitler failed when conspirator Helmuth Stieff failed to detonate the explosives.It was taken over by the American military authority in May 1945.The marble Reichsadler sculptures connected to the entry portals were a reminder of the Nazi period.

Schloss Klessheim was returned to the State of Salzburg after the war. During the Cold War, the neutral Austrian government utilized it to organize conferences and welcome foreign guests, including US President Richard Nixon, who met with Chancellor Bruno Kreisky there on his route to Moscow on May 20, 1972. It has been the home of the Salzburg casino, which was previously located on the Mönchsberg, since 1993.

The castle was also featured in the 1965 film The Great Race, starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Peter Falk.