Egon Schiele Path

This themed trail takes you in the footsteps of little Egon through the city of Tulln, situated between tradition and modernity. You can explore the places of his childhood at the turn of the 20th century. A city between tradition and modernity. Let yourself be captivated by this atmosphere.

Tulln Main Station, Egon Schiele birthplace

Tulln Main Station, Egon Schiele birthplace

Popis trasy Egon Schiele Path

Follow the ground markings in the form of railroad tracks along the 13 stations on the Egon Schiele Path.

1st Station: Tulln Train Station

Birthplace or: Egon and the Old Steam Locomotives

Here you will learn: What Egon rebelled against. Why he hissed and whistled on the platform. Why his children's drawings went up in flames. And how the parental parlor became the railway line.

Summer 1890. Egon Leo Adolf Schiele is born at the Tulln train station. Father Adolf is the station master there. An imposing man in uniform with a saber and feather hat. Mother Marie runs a grand household. But Egon is a little rebel. Barely out of diapers, he reaches for the stylus. His favorite place: the windowsill. His favorite motif: the station. Egon paints everything he sees. And imitates everything he hears. The hissing of the steam locomotive. The whistle of the train conductor. However, the sketchpad soon becomes too small for him. He paints track layouts all over the apartment, decorates the walls with his pictures, until the parents intervene and Egon's sketches end up in the fire.

2nd Station: At Heisselgarten

Fatherly Love or: Egon and the Mysterious Visitor

Here you will learn: When Egon met death. Why he talked to an invisible guest. How valuable railway shares ended up in the fire. And why the Schiele family had to leave the Tulln station.

Death enters Egon's family early. In 1893, Elvira, his older sister, dies. He is three years old then. Feeling the parents' grief and the sense of abandonment. But that is not the only blow of fate. Syphilis is diagnosed in his beloved father. The proper station master suddenly neglects his duties, becomes confused, entertains an imaginary friend whom the family has to look after. Then the syphilis breaks out violently. In delirium, Adolf Schiele burns his railway shares and thus the family fortune. His employer relieves him of duty, evicts him from the apartment at the Tulln station. Four months later he succumbs to his illness. Egon is just fourteen years old then.

3rd Station: Old Elementary School

Learning Years or: Egon and the Grade Debacle

Here you will learn: What Egon did under the school desk. Who recognized his artistic talent. Why he failed without actually failing. And why he was too talented for the School of Arts and Crafts.

Why cram mathematical formulas when you have a thousand pictures in your head? For Egon, school is a torment. For two years, a tutor is lenient with the young drawing talent. But in elementary school, he gets bad grades. He draws instead of doing math. That doesn’t change in high school. He wants to be an artist and almost drops out. His mother charms the principal: a positive final certificate if he leaves school. Two teachers support his application to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. Then the unthinkable happens: too much talent! He is rejected and recommended to attend the Academy of Fine Arts. The Olympus for young painters. For Egon, the first step into the desired artist life.

4th Station: City Parish Church 

Matters of Faith or: Egon and the Apostle Gate

Here you will learn: What shaped the cityscape of Tulln. Why twelve bishops became apostles in popular speech. What outraged the priest. And how Egon spent his time after school.

The two mighty towers of the city parish church rise high above the houses of Tulln. Egon's father is Catholic, an important man in the city. Hence, a church visit on Sundays belongs to it. Anyone entering St. Stephen’s through the west portal is watched by twelve pairs of stone eyes. A dozen bishops of Passau adorn the pillars as imposing busts. The people call the portal the "Apostle Gate" and feel well protected. The children, of course, lack respect for the consecrated ground. The church square becomes a playground. What use is it if the priest is outraged? Then everyone runs away, with flying skirts and clattering school satchels. Egon rarely took part. He preferred to hang around the station area, drawing trains and cars, and dreaming of the wide world.

5th Station: Ossuary

Memorial or: Egon and the Mythical Creatures

Here you will learn: Why the Tulln residents exhumed bones. What Egon saw in the ossuary. How death and transience made it onto the canvas. And what role dying played in Egon's life. 

Cemeteries have something eerie about them. Even more eerie are charnel houses, like the one in the ossuary of Tulln. There, in the basement, the exhumed bones of the dead were stored until the end of the 18th century. The cemetery around the parish church is too small. The demand for empty graves too great. The upper floor of the ossuary is actually a cemetery chapel. The depictions on the round walls captivate Egon: dragons, demons, mythical creatures. Death is omnipresent here, as it was in Egon's life. His older sister died when he was just three. At fourteen he lost his beloved father. No wonder death and transience found expression in many works and early became a central theme in Egon's imagery.

6th Station: Wienerstraße

City Exit or: Egon and the Horse-drawn Carriage

Here you will learn: Where people strolled around the turn of the century. Where Egon's father drove his family. Why the Tulln residents whispered secretly. And why the station master was among the city's dignitaries.

Ladies in Sunday best, gentlemen in overcoats. Wienerstraße with its respectable shops was part of Tulln's promenade around the turn of the century. The Schiele family also moved here, but not on foot. Father Adolf bought a horse and carriage. His full beard is neatly trimmed under the hat with its lush feather plume. His uniform boots shiny when he drives his wife and children along Wienerstraße to the main square. The people of Tulln look at them curiously and whisper behind cupped hands. The station master is said to be condescending, and his wife proud coming from a wealthy background. Nevertheless, the Schieles are greeted. After all, the Franz-Josef Railway brings the modern world to Tulln.

7th Station: Main Square

Marketplace or: Egon and the Market Women

Here you will learn: Where the people of Tulln went shopping. What the maidservants wore to the market. Where Gothic and Baroque met. And what the Trinity Column on the main square commemorates.

Ladies in Sunday best, gentlemen in overcoats. Wienerstraße with its respectable shops was part of Tulln's promenade around the turn of the century. The Schiele family also moved here, but not on foot. Father Adolf bought a horse and carriage. His full beard is neatly trimmed under the hat with its lush feather plume. His uniform boots shiny when he drives his wife and children along Wienerstraße to the main square. The people of Tulln look at them curiously and whisper behind cupped hands. The station master is said to be condescending, and his wife proud coming from a wealthy background. Nevertheless, the Schieles are greeted. After all, the Franz-Josef Railway brings the modern world to Tulln.

8th Station: Minorite Church  

Display of Splendor or: Egon and the Martyr

Here you will learn: Who angered the King of Bohemia. Why a silent confessor died a martyr's death. What secrets the Soul Hole bore. And what connected Egon with Český Krumlov.

It is quiet in the winding side streets of Tulln's old town. But life unfolds on the main square. Around 1900, every day was market day. Early in the morning, wooden stalls are set up. Fresh fruit and vegetables piled high. The market women, not shy, loudly praised their goods. First come the maidservants of the fine families, like those of the Schieles, milk pail in hand, large shopping basket on arm. Later, housewives are out and about. Meanwhile, men pass the time at the cattle and pig markets. The ringing of the school bell livens things up again. Then the elementary school children run by and play tag around the Trinity Column in the middle of the main square, which is said to commemorate the many Tulln plague victims of the 17th century.  

9th Station: Egon Schiele Museum

Childhood Years or: Egon and the Rocking Horse

Here you will learn: Why Egon played with dolls. What his mother brought him from Vienna. How the steam locomotive made it onto paper. And which books his father gave him to read.

For an artist, the whole world is inspiration, even when he is still in his infancy. At the train station in Tulln, it is the iron steam locomotives that spark Egon's imagination. Black monsters that puff dense clouds of smoke into the sky. Gilded ornaments and magnificent opulence, on the other hand, are found in the Minorite Church. And mysterious things that fascinate every child: the bridge fall of Saint John of Nepomuk into the Moldau because he preferred silence to betraying the queen; the replica of a black Madonna, hidden behind Baroque grilles; and the Soul Hole in the lower church, where monks of the monastery found their last resting place. Enough mysterious legends and impressions to make even a long Latin high mass pass quickly.

10th Station: Water Cross

Flood or: Egon and the Wooden Crucifix

Here you will learn: Why the people of Tulln loved and hated their river. When Egon saw the Danube overflow its banks. Why a water chapel was built. And where the dead from the river were commemorated. 

Childhood as we know it was really "invented" only in the 19th century. Before, children were considered small adults and cheap labor. Egon was lucky. His family was wealthy. He had his own room with his sisters in his parents’ spacious apartment. He could draw all he wanted and received toys as gifts. A large rocking horse, a teddy bear with black button eyes. Even the dolls of his three sisters were not safe from him. His one and only were the brightly painted tin cars and the train sets that his mother brought him from her visits to Vienna. Forty in total. More than any other child in the town owned. But when Egon painted trains, he did it directly in the station hall. Because that was where his father was in charge.

11th Station: Roman Tower

City History or: Egon and the Ancient Romans

Here you will learn: Why the ancient Romans settled in Tulln. Where medieval trading ships anchored. What Egon's family owed the emperor. And how a flank tower became a salt store.

The Danube has two faces: it is a lifeline and a river of fate. For centuries, the water brought visitors from all over the world to Tulln, making the city flourish: Roman camp, naval base, residence of the Babenbergs, trading center. But floods repeatedly destroyed riverside paths and fields, flooded the city, and destroyed valuable possessions. Egon witnessed the devastation twice, in 1897 and 1899. Then the people of Tulln made a pilgrimage to their Water Cross. It has stood since 1729 on the old city wall, revered by fishermen and boatmen and protected by a small chapel. On All Saints’ Day, the dead from the Danube are commemorated there, and prayers are made to Saint John of Nepomuk for protection from the next ice jam.

12th Station: Roman Museum

Latin of the Romans or: Egon and the Imperial Women’s Monastery

Here you will learn: Why the Dominican nuns had no money worries. Where madness was at home in Tulln. Why Egon's father was dismissed from service. And how the Roman Museum came to the old monastery.

Iron clatters, men shout, horses neigh. In the Comagenis fortress, Roman soldiers are always ready to protect the Noric limes against barbarian incursions. The strategic location at a Danube ford made Tulln a transport hub, in the first century A.D. for the Roman legions, in the Middle Ages for northern merchants. The flank tower of the fortress was used to secure the landing place for trading boats. At Egon’s school days, the Emperor Franz Joseph Railway already existed. Fast steam locomotives replaced slow Danube ships. An iron railway bridge spans the river. Egon's father as station master of the district capital became a respected figure, and the old Roman Tower served the people of Tulln only as an armory and salt store.

13th Station: Cemetery
Life Breaks or: Egon and the Broken Chain

Here you will learn: What shaped Egon's childhood. Why he started school only at age 8. Why money was tight at home. And how he later freed himself from the chains of convention.

The noble ladies of the imperial women’s monastery in Tulln had good connections. Founded in 1280, the Dominican convent received numerous privileges from Frederick III. They had no money worries because the convent ladies brought their dowries. But then fire destroyed the convent and church. During reconstruction, the nuns went into debt. No money, no convent life. In Egon's time, a sanatorium was housed here. Many patients suffered delusions. The people of Tulln said: “fallen into madness,” just like Egon's father, who suffered late effects of syphilis. Eighty years after Egon’s death, the women’s monastery was repurposed again. In 2001, the Roman Museum opened its doors here, with finds from Comagenis, the former cavalry fort on the Danube bank.