3-053-713 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Shah on the Lake of Laxenburg, near Vienna, 1873. 'During the sojourn of the Shah of Persia at the Austrian capital he was entertained one day by the Emperor Francis Joseph at the Palace of Laxenburg, where nothing pleased him better than to be rowed up and down on the lake in a sumptuous barge, and to witness the sport of fishing. His Majesty, however, was too much beset in this aquatic pastime by the mob of ordinary tuft-hunters, who were so eager to catch sight of a personage invested with the attributes of a remote Asiatic royalty that they pushed as near as they could in a medley of small boats, wherries, and canoes, staring at the Shah with no more discretion than an English crowd. The palace of Laxenburg, which was partly built as it now stands by the Empress Maria Theresa, is of no great dimensions; but it adjoins the older palace or castle, founded in 1377, with additions constructed at different periods. The whole range of buildings was once surrounded by a moat, which has been converted into beautiful flower gardens. The park is about the size of Hyde Park, and has its Serpentine, with seventeen islands, on the largest of which is a Museum of National Art and Antiquities, in a pavilion named the Franzensburg'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.