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.