Construction of the palace probably began in 1762, when Prince Nikolaus succeeded his brother Paul Anton. Before he became Prince, Nikolaus was accustomed to spending much of his time at a hunting lodge called Süttör, built in the same location around 1720 with a design by Anton Erhard Martinelli. The hunting lodge was used as nucleus around which Esterháza was built.[1] Fertod, Palais Esterhazy de nuit The first architect to work on the project was Johann Ferdinand Mödlhammer, succeeded in 1765 by Melchior Hefele.[1] While the palace is often compared to Versailles, which the Prince had visited in 1767, H. C. Robbins Landon claims that a more direct influence can be found in Austrian prototypes, particularly Schönbrunn palace in Vienna. The palace cost the Prince the sum of 13 million gulden, a figure that Robbins Landon terms astronomical. Eszterháza was first inhabited in 1766, but construction continued for many years. The opera house was completed in 1768 (the first performance was of Joseph Haydn's opera Lo speziale), the marionette theater in 1773. The fountain in front of the palace was not completed until 1784, at which point the Prince considered his project complete.
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