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The Franzensburg, a key work of romantic Classicism, was commenced in 1782 under the auspices of the imperial treasurer and later castle bailiff Michael Riedl, Edler von Leuenstern. The court master mason Franz Jäger was chiefly entrusted with its actual construction.
Already in 1799 ancient elements of ruins and monasteries were obtained to create a ruin in Laxenburg gardens, for example glass windows of the dissolved monastery of Säusenstein on the Danube, building materials from Waldhausen monastery and the Capella Speciosa in Klosterneuburg. The chapel was consecrated on 15 October 1801, and on the same day the Franzensburg was opened. The actual construction activity was, however, delayed, and the Franzensburg was only completed at the end of 1835.
The battlemented architecture of the Franzensburg, which is situated on an island in the grounds of the royal summer residence of Laxenburg, was, until the mid-19th century, a model for many of the palaces built in the Habsburg domains.
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