Apart from many small alterations, the Palace Gardens at Eggenberg have undergone three significant design phases.
Throughout the history of the palace, the gardens have always been as equally important as the house and its fittings and furnishings. They have been redesigned to suit every generation's personal ideas and the latest fashions of the time. There was already an enclosed extra garden to the southeast of the building that had most probably belonged to the previous castle building even during the construction of the palace.
Prince Johann Seyfried von Eggenberg, Hans Ulrich's grandson, not only commissioned the decorations of the state rooms and the Planetary Room, but also turned his attention to the design of the gardens as well. In 1678, work began on an Italian-style garden, which was to surround the whole Palace. High clipped hedges divided the garden into various sections, and it not only boasted exotic botanical rarities, but also a pheasantry, hedge theatre, large greenhouses, terrapin pools, ornate fountains, aviaries and a separate kitchen garden area for the princely banqueting table.
