The Schlossberg is located in the very city center of Graz. The city owes its name to the castle, which was built in the 16th century on this hill. From the Slavonic word Gradec for "little castle" later emerged Graz. After a victory over the Habsburgs in 1809, Napoleon demanded the demolition of the fortress. A huge amount of money paid to the French by the burghers of Graz could prevent the Clock Tower (in this photo) and the Bell Tower from being destroyed. The Clock Tower is a recognisable icon for the city, and there's a special thing about it: the clock's hands have opposite roles to the common notion, with the larger one marking hours while the smaller is for minutes.
The construction of the "Landhaus" started in 1557. The prestigious building for the Styrian estates was designed by the Italian architect Domenico dell’Allio, even today it is the seat of the regional government of Graz. The building has a beautiful Renaissance-style arcaded courtyard.
The State Apartments of Eggenberg Palace are a series of seven interconnecting rooms, decorated with red silk damask and matching white-gilt seating.
The Bel Étage of Eggenberg Palace has remained almost unchanged since the 18th century. Furnished with original 17th and 18th century designs, furniture, tapestries and decorations, the circle of 24 state rooms is among the most significant ensembles in Austria. The highlight of the state rooms is the Planetary Room, completed in 1685. The name derives from the cycle of paintings by the court artist Hans Adam Weissenkircher. With its complex artistic programme, which merged astrological and hermetical ideas, number symbolism and family mythology to form a complex allegory to glorify the Eggenberg dynasty, the Planetary Room is ranked among the most impressive pieces of early Baroque interior decoration in Central Europe.
Eggenberg Palace was built post-1625 by Italian architect and artist Pietro de Pomis as a residence for the imperial governor Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg. The edifice was designed as a huge allegory, a symbolic representation of the universe, where the erudite client set out his notion of an ideal world in an age of chaos and disintegration.
This week I take you to Graz, the capital of the federal state of Styria and Austria's second largest city where I spent the weekend before last. Let's start our tour with the city hall: It was designed by the Viennese architects Alexander Wielemans von Monteforte and Theodor Reuter and completed in 1893. In the 20th century the main facade was radically simplified.
On Thursday I was on a firm's day out. The last part of our program was the visit of the so-called "World Machine" in a village in Styria. The machine was created by the farmer Franz Gsellmann (1910-1981) over a period of 23 years, translating his thoughts into a unique piece of technology. Everything on this machine turns, moves, flashes, blinks, rings, rattles, clatters and whistles. Gsellmann wanted to become electrician, but he had to succeed his father on the family farm. When Gsellmann saw a ohoto of the Atomium in Brussels in the newspaper, he immediately traveled there by train to see the building in reality. He returned with a small scale model of the Atomium, emptied a room of his farm, situated the model there, and began constructing his machine around it. He went to junk yards, second-hand dealers, and flea markets to obtain devices he could use to add to his construction. The machine grew to almost 4m high, 4m long, and 2m wide. Please click here for a video of the machine.
After the government of Lower Austria had bought the Schallaburg, the castle was completely renovated, and in 1974 opened as a museum. Since then there has been a new exhibition every year. Currently there's an exhibition about the 1970's.
From the 17th until the 20th century, the castle Schallaburg changed owners several times - it remained private property until 1945 when it was confiscated by the Russians (after the end of World War II Austria was occupied by the Allies). Ten years later the castle became property of the new Republic of Austria. In 1967 the government of Lower Austria bought the castle from the Austrian state.
The other day I made an excursion to the castle Schallaburg in Lower Austria. The castle was first mentioned in records in 1242. From 1456 until 1614 the Schallaburg was in possession of the Von Losenheim family. During this time the castle was extended significantly and transformed into a Renaissance castle.
Last Friday I went to Paris, my favorite city (besides Vienna, of course), to see an important photo trade fair and several exhibitions. I was looking forward to this trip for weeks... and then happened the terrible attacks, one of them in the proximity of where I was staying...
A bouquet of spices is a popular souvenir from Salzburg. The bouquet dates back to the time when only a few rooms could be heated, and people and their farm animals would often cohabitate on the coldest days - this spicy room freshener was a good remedy.
The construction of Hohensalzburg Fortress started in 1077. This original design was just a basic bailey with a wooden wall. In the Holy Roman Empire, the archbishops of Salzburg were already powerful political figures and they expanded the castle to protect their interests. During the following centuries the fortress was further expanded. During the early 20th century it was used as a prison, holding Italian prisoners of war during World War I and Nazi activists (before the Anschluss with Germany) in the 1930s. Today it is a major tourist attraction.
Last Saturday I day-tripped to Salzburg, the fourth-largest city in Austria and the native town of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The city is overlooked by the Hohensalzburg Fortress, one of the largest existing 11th century fortress complexes in Europe. The fortifications were built to protect the prince bishops and the principality itself from attack. However, the fortress never faced a real siege.
Some weeks ago a friend of mine and me made an excursion to the Zotter chocolate factory in Styria. Zotter is a very famous company in Austria, the chocolate factory has ranked among the few quality chocolate makers around the world whose chocolate production processes are located under the same roof - from the roasting of the cocoa beans up to the finishing touches in the conching plant. Visitors can book a tasting tour that provides valuable information on chocolate as well as numerous creatively arranged titbit stations.
Flowers and benches in front of the orangerie in Schloss Hof.
The sala terrena is the “ground floor” of Schloss Hof palace, it connects the interior of the palace with the garden terrace. This kind of room is a characteristic of Baroque palaces.
Some weeks ago a friend of mine and me made an excursion to Schloss Hof in Lower Austria. The grounds of Schloss Hof extend over more than 50 hectares of land. The magnificent ensemble with its lordly palace, beautiful terraced garden and idyllic manor farm was laid out in the late 1720s as an impressive country home and hunting lodge for Prince Eugene of Savoy. In 1755 Empress Maria Theresia acquired the complex from Prince Eugene’s heir and presented it as a gift to her husband, Emperor Francis Stephen. The generations of Habsburg emperors and archdukes that followed showed little interest in their Marchfeld summer residence and increasingly allowed nature to do its destructive work. In the late 19th century Emperor Francis Joseph I turned the complex into a military training ground, and the already heavily damaged imperial splendour almost entirely disappeared.
During and after the two world wars Schloss Hof was exposed to more disinterest and inappropriate use. Only in 2002 a society founded solely for the revitalization, undertook the needed measurements for the restoration of this precious monument of Austrian cultural heritage. In May 2005 the ensemble was opened to the public.
The Old Town Hall is a complex of buildings from the 14th century. It is the oldest city hall in Slovakia and one of the oldest stone buildings still standing in Bratislava, with the tower being built approximately in 1370. It houses the city's oldest museum, the Bratislava City Museum.
The beautiful Art Nouveau Palace of the Hungarian Exchange Bank in the main square.
