The baroque Bernardikapelle is located in the city center. It belongs to the Cistercians of the Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Lower Austria and originally served the abbot as private chapel when he had to stay in Vienna for a longer period of time.
St. Charles Church was built as a result of a vow taken by Emperor Charles VI during a plague epidemic. It is consecrated to the patron saint of the Habsburg emperor, Saint Charles Borromeo. The church is the last work of the eminent baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The construction began in 1716 and was finished - after J.B. Fischer von Erlach's death - by his son Joseph Emmanuel in 1737 who sligthly changed the plans of his father.
During the reign of Emperor Ferndinand I the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre was used during the summer months. At the beginning of the 20th century it was transformed into a furniture depot. After WWI the ensemble of the Burgtheater performed at the Palace Theatre during the summer season but the financial situation led to its closure in 1924. Five years later it was provided to the Max Reinhardt Seminar as an exercise stage.
In 1745 Empress Maria Theresia commissioned court architect Nikolaus Pacassi to construct the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre in order to give the drama performances until then hold in the park of Schönbrunn a home. The theater opened in 1747 in the western side wing of the palace and served the Habsburgs as a home theatre: The Empress' children danced, played, posed tableaux vivants and demonstrated their artistic talents in numerous peformances in front of the noble courtiers... The photo shows the current state of the foyer.
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.
Emperor Charles VI ordered the construction of the Baroque State Hall for his Court Library. It was built from 1723 till 1726 according to the plans of the famous court architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, and carried out by his son Joseph Emanuel. The ceiling frescoes were completed in 1730 by the court painter Daniel Gran. The space of the book cupboards is enough for about 200.000 volumes.
Click here to view thumbnails of all participants in the theme day.
We are still on the Am Hof square. The central fire station is located on one side of this square. The fire equipment used to be stored in the adjoining Vienna Civic Armoury, built in 1530. Initially an unadorned, functional building, it was redesigned in 1731/32 into a splendid building with a Baroque façade which shows the Habsburg shield and allegorical figures created by the Italian sculptor Lorenzo Mattielli.
I don't like wide and busy streets, I prefer quiet squares like this one in the city center. In this photo you can see several things that I love: tables and chairs, atlasses and a balcony. Please click here for a closer look of the balcony and the façade of the Baroque palace.
A beautiful Baroque building in the city center. I especially love the balcony and just learned that in Vienna the first balconies were built in the Late Baroque.
The MuseumsQuartier Wien is the eighth largest cultural area in the world and offers space for modern and contemporary art and culture. It combines independent new architecture and revitalized buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. In imperial times the Baroque Fischer von Erlach Wing housed the horse stables on the ground floor and the residences of employees of the royal court on the upper floor.
The Baroque Palais Trautson was built in 1712 and owned by the noble Trautson family. Since 1963 it has housed the headquarter of the Ministry of Justice.
In 1697 Count Heinrich-Franz of Mansfeld hired the star-architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt to design himself a fancy summer palace outside the city walls of Vienna. In 1715, the property was sold to Prince Adam Franz Karl of Schwarzenberg and the palais was finished as a gem of Baroque representation. Throughout the centuries, the Palais Schwarzenberg remained in the hands of the Schwarzenberg family. During World War II the palais was badly damaged, but rebuilt after the end of the war. It then housed a 5* hotel and a restaurant until 2006. To date the plans for a complete redesign didn't work out, which means that the palais is still vacant. Some rooms however can be rented for special events. Recently the palais housed the headquarter of the Vienna Design Week.
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.
Franz I Stephan, the husband of Empress Maria Theresia, instigated the building of the Schönbrunn orangery (the building behind the fountain in this photo) in 1754. It is one of the two largest Baroque orangeries in the world, the other being at Versailles. The orangery served not only as the winter quarters for citrus trees and other potted plants but was also a winter garden used for imperial court festivities. During a winter festivity in 1786 Mozart conducted his Singspiel "The Impresario" here.
Here's another photo of the staircase at Prince Eugene of Savoy's Winter Palace. For a closer photo of the statue on the right please click here.
