Carl Gangolf Kayser (or Carl Gangolph Kaiser; born 12 February 1837, in Vienna; died 2 September 1895) was an Austrian architect at the service of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, during the Second Mexican Empire. In the later part of his life he returned to Austria and worked on restoring medieval castles.
Carl Gangolf Kayser was enrolled in the sculpture class of the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna and in that of Munich. So far, we do not know about any formal architectural studies of Kayser. He was an auditor to architecture with Friedrich von Schmidt in Vienna and specialized later on in Mediaeval and Gothic revival architecture.
After several trips during the Second Mexican Empire, he was appointed court architect by Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico in 1866. After arriving in Mexico City, he planned various architectural projects in the Palacio Nacional and the Castle of Chapultepec, and continued the work of the architects Julius Hofmann and Ramón Rodríguez Arangoiti, who were the main builders of Chapultepec Castle, in Mexico. The Prefect of the Court officially notified Kayser of his appointment as Court Architect in February 1866, almost two years after the arrival of emperor Maximilian in Mexico. [1] Drawings of other Mexican projects exist in archives in Mexico City, but they were not realized. He also had to abandon most of his plans for Chapultepec Castle after the execution of Emperor Maximilian. Kayser is an interesting figure in part because of all the drawings of projected buildings he left behind in Mexico, while only a few were completed.
After the collapse of the Mexican Empire in 1867, Kayser returned to Austria, where he restored several medieval castles, such as Kreuzenstein, Hardegg and Liechtenstein Castle near Vienna.
Frederick III was Holy Roman Emperor from 1452 until his death in 1493. He was the fourth king and first emperor of the House of Habsburg. He was the penultimate emperor to be crowned by the pope, and the last to be crowned in Rome.
Liechtenstein Castle is a castle near Maria Enzersdorf in Lower Austria, bordering Vienna. It is on the edge of the Wienerwald. Liechtenstein Castle is the eponymous ancestral seat and place of origin of the House of Liechtenstein, the ruling family of the Principality of Liechtenstein. The family owned the castle from at least 1140 until the 13th century, and again from 1808 to the present.
Laxenburg is a market town in the district of Mödling, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Located about 20 km (12 mi) south of the Austrian capital Vienna, it is chiefly known for the Laxenburg castles, which, beside Schönbrunn, served as the most important summer retreat of the Habsburg monarchs.
Chapultepec Castle is located on top of Chapultepec Hill in Mexico City's Chapultepec park. The name Chapultepec is the Nahuatl word chapoltepēc which means "on the hill of the grasshopper". It is located at the entrance to Chapultepec park, at a height of 2,325 metres (7,628 ft) above sea level. The site of the hill was a sacred place for Aztecs, and the buildings atop it have served several purposes during its history, including serving as a military academy, imperial residence, presidential residence, observatory, and since February 1939, the National Museum of History. Chapultepec Castle, along with Iturbide Palace, also in Mexico City, are the only royal palaces in North America which were inhabited by monarchs.
The House of Liechtenstein, from which the principality takes its name, is the family which reigns by hereditary right over the principality of Liechtenstein. Only dynastic members of the family are eligible to inherit the throne. The dynasty's membership, rights and responsibilities are defined by a law of the family, which is enforced by the reigning prince and may be altered by vote among the family's dynasts, but which may not be altered by the Government or Parliament of Liechtenstein.
The ruins of Falkenstein Castle is in the Weinviertel region of Lower Austria, about 55 kilometres (34 mi) north of Vienna near the border to Czech Republic.
Ambras Castle is a Renaissance castle and palace located in the hills above Innsbruck, Austria. Ambras Castle is 632 metres (2,073 ft) above sea level. Considered one of the most popular tourist attractions of the Tyrol, Ambras Castle was built in the 16th century on the spot of an earlier 10th-century castle, which became the seat of power for the Counts of Andechs. The cultural and historical importance of the castle is closely connected with Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595) and served as his family's residence from 1567 to 1595. Ferdinand was one of history's most prominent collectors of art. The princely sovereign of Tyrol, son of Emperor Ferdinand I, ordered that the medieval fortress at Ambras be turned into a Renaissance castle as a gift for his wife Philippine Welser. The cultured humanist from the House of Habsburg accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum: the collections, still in the Lower Castle built specifically for that museum's purpose, make Ambras Castle one of the oldest museums in the world.
Hardegg is a town in the district of Hollabrunn in Lower Austria, Austria. It is situated in the Waldviertel region on the river Thaya, directly on the border with the Czech Republic. The Thaya valley is protected as the Thayatal National Park, adjacent to the Podyjí National Park on the Czech shore.
Johann (Hans) Nepomuk Wilczek was an Austrian arctic explorer and patron of the arts. He was the main sponsor of the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition in 1872–74.
Burgruine Federaun is a castle in Carinthia, Austria.
Finkenstein Castle is a ruined medieval castle in the market town of Finkenstein, in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is situated on a steep cliff at the southern foot of the Karawanks mountain range, high above Lake Faak, at a height of 788 metres (2,585 ft). Today the castle ruin is the backdrop of the Burgarena, an amphitheatre with 1150 seats mainly used for concerts and festivals.
Burg Hardegg is a castle in Lower Austria, Austria. Burg Hardegg is 317 metres (1,040 ft) above sea level. It was restored in the late 19th century with the help of architect Carl Gangolf Kayser.
Burg Kreuzenstein is a castle near Leobendorf in Lower Austria, Austria. Burg Kreuzenstein is 265 metres (869 ft) above sea level. It was constructed on the remains of a medieval castle that had fallen into disrepair and was then demolished during the Thirty Years' War. Intended to be a family vault for the Wilczek family, it was rebuilt in the 19th century by Count Nepomuk Wilczek with money from the family's large Silesian coal mines. Kreuzenstein is interesting in that it was constructed out of sections of medieval structures purchased by the family from all over Europe to form an authentic-looking castle. Thus, the castle can be considered both a 'neo-' and 'original' medieval structure. The castle is sometimes used as a location for films.
The House of Khevenhüller is the name of an old and important Carinthian noble family, documented there since 1356, with its ancestral seat at Landskron Castle. In the 16th century, the family split into the two branches of Khevenhüller-Frankenburg, Imperial Counts from 1593, and Khevenhüller-Hochosterwitz, raised to Imperial Counts in 1725 and, as Khevenhüller-Metsch, to princely rank (Fürsten) in 1763. The family belongs to high nobility.
Gundakar of Liechtenstein was a member of the House of Liechtenstein and as such the owner of a large estate. He also served the Habsburg dynasty.
Schloss Rohrau is a castle in the town of Rohrau in Lower Austria, bordering on Burgenland. The building houses the art collection of the counts of Harrach.
Wolfsberg Castle, today also Henckel-Donnersmarck Castle, stands on a knoll in the north of the town of Wolfsberg in the Austrian state of Carinthia.
Lukas von Graben zum Stein, lord of Stein, Schwarzenegg and Weidenburg, pledger of Heinfels, was a Carinthian-Gorizian nobleman and military leader of the Counts of Gorizia and the Habsburgs. In the succession dispute over the princely County of Gorizia at the end of the 15th century, Von Graben acted as deputy of his father Virgil von Graben, administrator of Gorizia, and defender of the rights of the Habsburgs against the aspirations of the Republic of Venice. In 1518 he was one of 70 representatives in the first Austrian general parliament of Emperor Maximilian I in Innsbruck.
Schloss Grafenegg is a castle in Grafenegg, Lower Austria, Austria. Together with Burg Kreuzenstein and Schloss Anif near Salzburg, it is considered to be an outstanding example of romantic historical architecture in Austria.
Schloss Blühnbach is a stately home in the Blühnbach valley in Werfen, Salzburg (state), Austria. Formerly, it was a hunting lodge of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg and Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered World War I. The estate is privately owned and ‘hermetically closed’ to the public.
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