The little market town of Laxenburg (pop. 2,000) lies amid the meadows bordering the Schwechat in the Vienna Basin. At one time the Court rode out to Laxenburg to escape from the heat of Vienna during the summer months, and the countryside around constituted the old hunting grounds of the Habsburgs. The park, laid out in 1780-90, has many old
trees and other features characteristic of the landscape gardening of the Romantic period, and is one of the most outstanding of its kind in Austria. The medieval "Altes Schloss" in the park is of historical importance, because it was here that the Emperor Charles VI issued the "Pragmatic Sanction" which enabled his daughter Maria Theresa to succeed to the throne. It now houses the Austrian film archives.