Austerlitz - The Santon

The Santon is a small hill on the far left of Napoleon’s battle line. Immediately prior to the battle it was fortified with field works and 20 captured Austrian light cannon. It came under attack during the early stages of the battle, but was held throughout the day.

The main road runs between the Santon and Napoleons main command post on the Zuran Hill. From the road the Santon is not very impressive, as it is now overgrown on that side. To reach the steep steps you have to walk around to the other side.

The plan was to walk from the Post House to the Santon after lunch. However after our wet and cold morning we were reluctant to leave the warmth of the Post House. We were eventually persuaded by the offer of a lift to the Santon in the mini bus. By now the weather had greatly improved and we were all keen to get back to the tour.

It came as a surprise that the view from the top of the Santon is quite restricted. There are good views to the left, but that area saw little action during the battle, other than a minor infantry attack on the Santon itself. Alan Rooney explained the importance of this hill in the battle and the cavalry battle which took place between it and the Post House. This is the area that we should have walking over instead of extra glasses of local wine to wash down the excellent Santon Cannonball for lunch!

There was a chapel on the Santon prior to the battle, but it was dismantled to provide material for the fortifications. The present chapel was built in 1832 and looks like it has always been there.

There is also a cannon gun on the summit. There are no signs in English, so I am not sure whether this was an original or a replica.

The Post House

The Post House looks pretty much like it must have been on the eve of the battle, when it was headquarters to the Russian staff. The night after the battle it served the same function for the French staff.

By the time we arrived the rain has stopped, though we were all wet and cold. We were greatly cheered to hear that we would have lunch here. This consisted of a goulash type meal called “The Santon Cannonball”. A large round bread loaf filled with very tasty meat and potatoes, all washed down with a bottle of local wine. Just what we all needed to raise our morale reach for the afternoon walk.

The Post House is similar to an English coaching inn. It is now a combined hotel, restaurant and museum. It has been renovated to retain its original feel, but with all modern amenities. The dining room is a large barn type room with long wooden tables and a large stone fireplace. It was crowded when we arrived, but fortunately Midas had booked ahead.

The stables are still in use. They offer a horse drawn guided tour of the battlefield, which would be a wonderful way to see it. There is also a very modern training area at the back of the building. The stables are used as accommodation for participants at the annual reenactment of the battle in December.

This unhappy looking group had not yet been fed and watered. It’s a shame that I do not have an after lunch photo as a comparison.

This photo is staged to advertise the Post House. It is taken at the top of the stairs leading to the wine store. We were invited down to sample a selection of local wines.

We had a demonstration of infantry drill by a couple of Imperial Grenadiers. Jan is looking rather bedraggled beside this impressive looking guardsman.

We also had a guided tour of the outbuildings and the museum. It is housed in the building where Napoleon held a staff meeting after the battle to plan the pursuit of the defeated Austrian and Russian armies.

Zuran Hill

It was a very short, if a very wet, walk from The Gravelpit to Zuran Hill. This was Napoleon’s command post for the early phases of the battle. The large tree makes it very easy to find, and the map on the stone plinth makes it easy to orientate the battlefield.

As we approached we were delighted to see the mini bus waiting at the command post. We had thought perhaps a hot drink, or even a lift to the next location. But we were soon put right on both scores.

This simplified map shows Zuran Hill on the left. It’s right beside the main road which runs through the battlefield to the Post House. Just to the left is Santon Hill. It would hard to find a better viewpoint of the left and centre of Napoleons battle line. The far right is out of sight, and while under attack during the opening stages of the battle was not critical. The main attack would be delivered just to the right of Zuran Hill towards The Pratzen Heights.

I like this line drawing which shows Napoleon directing the battle from Zuran Hill.

This view is from Santon Hill. The road in the centre is the main road to the Post House. We would walk to the right of this road towards Blasowitz and then on to Holnbilz.

If my smile looks a tad fixed, it might well be because we have just been told that we are going to walk to Blosowitz. And then we will carry on to Holnbilz where we would meet up with the mini bus.

Despite Alan Rooney’s best efforts to explain the fighting in this area, my memory of the next hour or so is of being wet and chilled, tramping through the worse mud I have ever encountered. It stuck to our shoes in layers so that they soon felt really heavy and walking became quite difficult. It was a reality check to what it must have been like for your average infantryman in this period. It was tiring to walk a couple of hundred yards, let along dash around the battlefield. It also made me realise why the battle of Waterloo was delayed because it was difficult to position the guns.

The village in the centre is probably Krug and the one behind Holubitz. This is the ground we walked over.

The same view on our wet and windy September morning

The area to the right, and the scene of the large cavalry battle.

Same area as we neared Holubitz.

The mini bus was waiting as we reached Holubitz. Alan offered us a lift to the Post House where we would have lunch. But by now the rain had ceased, and we were determined to finish the morning’s planned walk. So we all voted to walk the last half mile to the Post House.

Schlapanitz

In the 1970s we had lived in Germany and had wanted to visit Austerlitz. However at that time it was behind the “Iron Curtain” and we were not able to get permission. Our Holts coach tour of Portugal and Spain had been a great introduction to that area, but they did not offer tours of Austerlitz. So when we heard about a travel company called Midas Battlefield Tours who offered a four day Walking Tour of Austerlitz we quickly signed up.

Our last walk in Spain had been curtailed by bad weather, but this was heavy rain on a new scale. These four days would be memorable for heavy rain, thick mud and remarkably cheerful and friendly fellow battlefield walkers.

Midas Tours was a small company who specialized in battlefield tours. There were just 18 on this tour and Jan was pleasantly surprised to find that there were three other ladies.

Early on 3 September 1998 we left UK in heavy rain and on arrival at Vienna airport it was still raining. We were less impressed to find our transport would be a mini coach with a trailer, none of your luxury coaches here. But it was considerably less than a similar Holts Tour. The group were also much younger than your average Holts Tour, and most had done previous tours with Midas.

We had a comfortable night in the Brunn Holiday Inn we set off for the battlefield determined to ignore the light rain. Our first stop was the town of Schlapanitz, which is close to both The Santon and the Zuran Hill which was Napoleons headquarters during the battle. The Russian looking church was used as a hospital by the French during the battle.

Schlapantiz is shown just to the right of The Santon. There are many different spellings of towns and villages, but I have chosen the one shown above to avoid confusion..

The house which Marshal Soult used as his headquarters is now a museum. Unfortunately it was closed when were there. We were disappointed to miss the exhibits, but also an opportunity to spend an hour or so in the dry and allow the rain to stop.

From the town we set off across the fields to an area behind Zuran Hill called The Gravelpit. This was the area where Napoleon spent the night before the battle, surrounded by the Imperial Garde.

This painting shows Napoleon at The Gravelpit with his generals. It was from here that he set off to ride along the French positions, prompting the famous torch light procession which so alarmed the Russians on the Pratzen opposite.

There was no shelter near The Gravelpit, so we just tried very hard to ignore the heavy rain as we had our first briefing. By now we were all pretty wet, but there was no complaints and everyone seemed to be enjoying the experience. Perhaps like us, they were used to such weather from previous tours.

This is the battlefield map issued by Midas. It is an excellent map, showing the exact site of all of the major events of the battle. It is a commercial map, not one made by Midas, but I have never seen it on sale. If you plan to visit the battlefield I would strongly recommend you get hold of one if you can.

Alan Rooney was our guide for the tour. He came well prepared with his notes in waterproof sheets. His cheerful attitude, and determination to complete the tour whatever the weather, did much to help keep the morale of the group high.

Having completed our first stop, it was time to continue across the fields towards Zurlan Hill, with a very wet Jan in the lead.