The tomb of General Field-Marshall Gideon Ernst Freiherr von Laudon on a somewhat lonely site in the Hadersdorf suburb of Vienna. He assumed command of the Austrian army from Emperor Joseph II whose health declined in the course of the 1788/89 was with Turkey. The war had been going very badly for the Austrian forces but their fortunes were reversed under von Laudon's leadership and he became the darling of Vienna.
Dr. Anton Schmith, a friend of Mozart's and himself a talented musician, made an entry in Mozart's album praising both von Laudon and Mozart with a clever Latin verse.
Von Laudon died in 1790 (as did Joseph II) and an illuminated memorial open from 8.00 A.M. to 10.00 P.M. was instigated by Herr Joseph Muller. It was Muller who arrived at Mozart's home soon after the composer died to take a death mask of the deceased musician.
The Wiener Zeitung newspaper recorded that "Upon the stroke of each hour a Funeral Musique will be heard and will be different each week. This week the composition is by Herr Kapellmeister Mozart."
Von Laudon was buried in this elaborate tomb and a similar design was used for the construction of the tomb for Countess Walsegg, more details of which are available on this site.
