Memorial “Zu den Drei Rusten”, Sarasdorf (Village Trautmannsdorf/Leitha, Lower Austria)

Memorial “Zu den Drei Rusten”, Sarasdorf (Village Trautmannsdorf/Leitha, Lower Austria)According to contemporary reports, the first meeting between Maximilian and the Jagiellon kings took place on an open field in Trautmannsdorf, which was owned by the Order of St. George. Later traditions state that three elm trees were planted there in memory of this event, from which the name “zu den drei Rusten” (“Ruste” = elm) dervies. On this site, which today is immediately adjacent to Road 10 in Slovakia, a permanent memorial composed of three linden trees was erected in the 1970s. The trunk of the last remaining elm, now dead, was conserved with a stone coating and transformed into a column. Its decorations depict the encounter between the three monarchs and explain the importance of this site as the founding place of the Danube monarchy.
Elisabeth Klecker