Optional Tours

The 2008 Classical Music Festival will be offering three optional tours from which you may choose one since they will take place on the same day.  Each tour costs an additional fee.  A form with information about the tours will be sent out in the spring for Festival participants to fill out and return with their choice and payment.

Tour 1    Fertöd/Esterháza

The tour bus will depart from Eisenstadt to travel over the border to Hungary to visit the summer palace built by Prince Nicolaus I Esterházy, which he named Esterháza. There you will have a tour of the palace where many of Haydn's symphonies, quartets, and operas were first performed. Near the palace grounds are the musicians' quarters where Haydn and his musicians lived. You can stroll on the grounds and reflect on the site of the former opera house and the marionette theater, which are no longer standing. From Fertöd you will travel to Sopron, an important city dating back to Roman times and later important for Liszt, who performed there at an early age. After a tour of the city center there will be time to shop in the lively shopping district before returning to Eisenstadt that evening.

(minimum of 25 persons)

The tour bus will depart from Eisenstadt in the morning to travel to Bratislava, the beautiful capital city of Slovakia impressively situated along the Danube. Bratislava, site of the coronation of the Habsburgs as kings of Hungary, has a lovely old city filled with historical sites situated in recently restored pedestrian zones. The excitement of the bustling inner city is magnified by the delightful restaurants and cafes found throughout. Music has always played an important role in this cosmopolitan city. Haydn and Liszt visited and performed here and Hummel was born and educated in Bratislava before leaving for Vienna to become a student of Mozart.