In the age of Prince Eugene people enjoyed the luxury beverage of coffee in rooms especially provided for the activity, as is reflected in the name Caffee Zimmer, the Coffee Room. The Baroque fireplace with the relief by Alberto Camesina still alludes today to the room’s original function: a youth refreshes the lady with the exotic drink.

Forty years later the room was given a new design as antechamber for Emperor Joseph II’s apartment. In keeping with the vogue for chinoiserie in the second half of the eighteenth century, the walnut panelling was replaced by hand-painted Chinese silk fabric.

The style had changed drastically: the austere, linear forms of Neo-classicism replaced the curving lines of Baroque. The change in aesthetic taste is clearly recognisable in the furniture.

The “table” or dining room – Taffel Stuben – was used for private meals with close friends and family members. In the eighteenth century the table was assembled and laid quite flexibly according to requirement and number of guests. In keeping with its function as hunting lodge, game was the main dish on the menu; the favoured wines came from Prince Eugene’s Hungarian vineyards. After the meal, the table was taken down and carried out of the room. The resplendent fireplace and the stucco decorations are from the age of Prince Eugene and allude to the function of the room.

In the 1770s the original walnut wall panelling was painted white and gold and the room re-furnished. The pictures with views of Naples by Antonio Jolli also date to this period. They possibly originated as a reference to the marriage of Maria Karolina, Maria Theresa’s daughter, to King Ferdinand of Naples-Sicily.

The rules of Baroque etiquette demanded that every important room had at least one antechamber. Visitors or petitioners had to wait for their host in this antechamber and were received either here or in the audience chamber.

This function was radically altered forty years after Prince Eugene’s death: a private room was made out of the official one, and chess or cards etc. were played on specially made gaming tables.

The walls and furniture are covered with colourfully patterned cotton fabric imported from India, now reconstructed after the original. The stucco decorations still date from the 1730s and take as their allegorical subject the dormant Art of War and thus the associated flourishing of the Fine Arts.

The original function of this room as Prince Eugene’s audience chamber is evidenced by the ceiling relief. Two goddesses, Pallas Athene and Prudentia, are indications that the military commander handles matters justly and makes discerning decisions.

By the 1770s, the room had long been divested of its function as audience chamber. The function is completely modified by appointing it as a bed chamber. The former wall coverings with yellow and white silk was replaced by an Indian cotton fabric. This fabric was used also to reconstruct the bed according to the original model and to upholster the Neo-classicist furnishings.

Prince Eugene’s bed chamber was the highest ranking room in his apartment and hence its highlight. The windows opened up a view for him onto the estate farm and gardens. The predilection in the Baroque era for bold colours was particularly evident here: the dark-blue espaliered damask walls offered a strong contrast to the four-poster bed in yellow silk.

Forty years after the Prince’s death both the function and the appearance of the room were completely altered. The entire furnishings from the 1730s were removed and a luxurious drawing room appointed. Both walls and furniture were covered with a silk fabric manufactured in Europe and modern in the eighteenth century – the so-called Chiné à la branche or ikat.