The Master’s Garden

Jérôme Count Herberstein died in 1847 and the estate was passed on to his son, Johann Heinrich.

In 1848, Johann Heinrich ordered the head gardener Friedrich Wägener to create and build a private garden for him at the back of the palace. This garden was later known as the Breakfast or Master's Garden. Bordered by ornate wrought-iron fencing, the garden initially comprised ornamental boxwood "parterres de broderie", which were later simplified into an oval rose bed with surrounding box globes. This part of the garden always remained a much cherished area reserved only for the Count's family with a small wooden pavilion and water lily pond. After reviewing the archive records, a decision was made in 2004/5 to reconstruct the Master's Garden to reflect its late 19th century design. The pathways and the main oval rose bed with the surrounding box globes were repositioned in accordance with archaeological findings. When planting the borders, historic rose stocks were interspersed with perennials and the original little lily pond was later also found to be intact and uncovered. The lost pavilion was reconstructed according to a design taken from the "Ideenmagazin für Liebhaber von Gärten, Englischen Anlagen und für Besitzer von Landgütern" (Magazine of ideas for garden enthusiasts...), which was published by Johann Gottfried Grohmann from 1797 up to the 1840s. This magazine was much-used reference journal for the gardens at Eggenberg and can actually still be found in the Herberstein Library today.