Reichenau castle was first mentioned in a 1256 deed. Duke
Otto IV the Merry, who in 1327 had established the abbey of
Neuberg, acquired Reichenau in 1333 and granted it to the monastery. Originally an
ore mining and forestry area, Reichenau due to its picturesque setting became a summer resort of the
Viennese nobility in the 19th century. From 1854 on the development of the area was decisively promoted by the opening of the
Semmering railway line with a train station in neighbouring
Payerbach, part of the
Austrian Southern Railway (Südbahn) from the Vienna
Südbahnhof to
Trieste. Reichenau was directly connected to Payerbach by the
Höllentalbahn narrow gauge railway in 1926 at the same time with the opening of the
Raxseilbahn, the oldest
aerial tramway in Austria. In 1873 a drinking water pipeline to Vienna was built to supply the
Austro-Hungarian capital with mountain water rising from the Rax range. In 1872
Archduke Charles Louis of Austria had the
Villa Wartholz residence erected near his favourite hunting grounds, according to plans by
Heinrich von Ferstel. In 1889
Nathaniel Anselm von Rothschild followed with the building of Hinterleiten Palace. He however did not spend much time in Reichenau and shortly afterwards donated the palais to a veterans foundation, while the
Villa Wartholz remained a seat of the Habsburg family, especially of
Charles and his wife
Zita; their first son,
Otto, was born and baptized there, and when Charles become Emperor of Austria,
Villa Wartholz was his summer residence in the years 1917 and 1918. Reichenau was the summer retreat of the author
Heimito von Doderer, where he wrote large parts of his novel
The Strudlhof Steps. The priest
Heinrich Maier, head of the spectacular
Austrian resistance group during the Nazi era, was a
chaplain in Reichenau in the 1930s. His very successful Catholic resistance group very successfully passed on plans and production facilities for V-1, V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks and aircraft (Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, etc.) to the Allies. This enabled the Allies to target decisive armaments factories and to protect residential areas. ==Notable people==