In 2010 the palace was added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site listing for Graz's "Old Town".

In the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century the landscape was dominated by agriculture and cultivating wineyards on the Plabutsch hillside.

It gradually changed from a peasant palace village towards a working class community because of the brewery Reininghaus since 1853 and the expansion of the industrial area around the railway station.

Although Wetzelsdorf became independent in 1914 Eggenberg still was the most populous market town in Austria with about 15000 inhabitants during the interwar period.

In the course of the Austrian Civil War in 1934 there were bitter fights between members of the Schutzbund and workers against police and military.