entire musical establishment at Eisenstadt was removed to the
prince's new palace of Esterhaz, with which Haydn was now to be
connected for practically the whole of his remaining professional
career.

Esterhaz

A great deal has been written about Esterhaz, but it is not
necessary that we should occupy much space with a description of
the castle and its surroundings. The palace probably owed its
inception to the prince's visit to Paris in 1764. At any rate, it
is in the French Renaissance style, and there is some
significance in the fact that a French traveller who saw it about
1782 described it as having no place but Versailles to compare
with it for magnificence. The situation--about three and a half
miles from Eisenstadt--was anything but suitable for an erection
of the kind, being in an unhealthy marsh and "quite out of the
world." But Prince Nicolaus had set his heart upon the scheme, as
Scott set his heart upon Abbotsford; and just as "Clarty Hole"
came in time to be "parked about and gated grandly," so Esterhaz,
after something like 11,000,000 gulden had been spent upon it,
emerged a veritable Versailles, with groves and grottoes,
hermitages and temples, summer-houses and hot-houses, and deer
parks and flower gardens. There were two theatres in the grounds:
one for operas and dramatic performances generally; the other
"brilliantly ornamented and furnished with large artistic
marionettes, excellent scenery and appliances."

A Puppet Theatre