The Esterházy family constructed Eszterháza a mere two-and-a-half kilometers from where my home now stands. A grand structure partially modeled after the Palace of Versailles, Esterháza was home to Haydn for a great portion of his composing life. As kapellmeister for the Esterházy family, Haydn divided his time between the family's palaces in Eszterháza (now known as Fertod in Hungary) and Kismarton (now known as Eisenstadt in Austria). The amount of time Haydn spent at these 'remote' estates - remember this is the eighteenth century and anything ten kilometers from Vienna was considered remote - isolated him from other composers and trends, forcing him, as he put it, "to become an original."
I'll sign off this post by leaving a link to one of my favorite Haydn pieces - Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major. If you happen to give it a listen now, try to visualize the composer walking the garden at Eszterháza, and you'll have the chance to spend a little time in the area I call home.