Albrechtsfeld, Agricultural estate in Andau, Austria
Albrechtsfeld is a farm estate near Andau in Burgenland, run as Domaine Albrechtsfeld GmbH by the Heinzel family. It farms 1271 hectares, 298 of them leased, and since 2005 has been converted to organic production, with a new farm building replacing most of the old settlement. Aberdeen Angus suckler cows have been kept since February 2009.
Haberndorf stood on this site until the First Turkish Siege of Vienna in 1529; a 1546 entry in the Ungarisch-Altenburg land register records the land as abandoned pasture, or Wismad. In 1724 the crown estate sold it to the House of Habsburg, and Maria Theresia gave it to her daughter Marie Christine in 1765. Archduke Albrecht owned it from 1847 to 1896, when it took his name and was converted from a sheep run into a farm with dairy cattle.
The name Albrechtsfeld honours Archduke Albrecht, owner from 1847 to 1896, under whom the sheep farm became a mixed estate with dairy and three settlements. The main farm had over 138 residents in 1872, the Westhof 41 workers, and from 1902 a schoolhouse served the population. Since February 2009 Aberdeen Angus cattle have grazed here.
Albrechtsfeld is a working farm, not a visitor site: the remaining settlement at the main farmyard was demolished after 2005 except for the administrative buildings, and a new farm building was put up. The only structure from the estate's settlement period still standing is the protected water tower in the centre of the former main farmyard. Access is via the road from Andau; the site lies in flat open country near the Hungarian border.
A protected historical water tower from the early settlement period still stands on the property and is the last relic of that era. The structure once supplied water to the entire surrounding community.
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