Leopoldsberg Castle

The castle on Leopoldsberg, formerly known as "Burg Ka(h)lenberg", is located on the summit of the easternmost foothills of the Vienna Woods, the Leopoldsberg in Vienna's 19th district, Döbling. It was a princely castle of the Babenbergs and later of the Habsburgs.

Currently (as of 2012), the inner castle area and the church located on it are not publicly accessible. The owner of the castle area is Klosterneuburg Abbey, which granted the Viennese architect Alexander Serda a 100-year building and usage right around 2009.

Numerous commemorative plaques are affixed in the castle area; see the list of commemorative plaques on Leopoldsberg for more information.

The castle was probably built in the 12th century. With the expansion of Laxenburg Palace by Albrecht III, after the Habsburgs had taken it over, the castle began to decay from 1377. During the First Turkish Siege in 1529, the castle was probably blown up. After a chapel was rebuilt on the mountain plateau in 1679, Emperor Charles VI had a palace built next to the St. Leopold Chapel around 1720, based on a design by Antonio Beduzzi. In 1786, the last remains of the medieval castle ("old building") were demolished. In 1791, the palace burned down, but was restored and served as a residence for the Belgian Field Marshal Charles Joseph de Ligne (1735–1814), who also had the Nasenweg built, from 1794 until his death.

In 1948, the Heimkehrer-Gedächtnismal (Returnees' Memorial) was erected on the foundation of a tower.