Belvedere, Vienna

Interesting facts

Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt first met Prince Eugene during a military campaign in Piedmont, and had already built him a palace on a Danube island near Budapest.

In 1719, while the interiors of the Upper Belvedere were still being decorated, Eugene received the Ottoman ambassador Ibrahim Pasha there.

Carlo Innocenzo Carlone's ceiling fresco in the Marble Hall shows Prince Eugene as a new Apollo, leader of the Muses, echoing the garden's sculptural programme.

Bernardo Bellotto's 1758 painting of Vienna seen from the Upper Belvedere gave its name to the Canaletto view, still cited in debates about the city's skyline.

In 1770 a masked ball was held at the Belvedere to celebrate the marriage of Archduchess Maria Antonia, the future Marie Antoinette, to the French Dauphin.

After the French Revolution the Lower Belvedere sheltered royal refugees, including Marie Thérèse, the only surviving child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.

When Tyrol was ceded to Bavaria, the famous Ambras Collection was moved to the Lower Belvedere in 1811 and stayed until the 1880s.

Structural problems led Hildebrandt to add a new vault to the Sala Terrena in 1732 to 1733, carried by four Atlas figures.

The Moderne Galerie that opened in the Lower Belvedere in 1903 was Austria's first state collection of modern art, with early purchases including van Gogh and Monet.

The Upper Belvedere is pictured on the Austrian 20-cent euro coin.

Why it is worth it

The Belvedere is Vienna's great Baroque ensemble: two palaces facing each other across a garden that climbs a gentle slope, built as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy. His architect was Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. The Lower Belvedere, the actual living quarters, was under way by 1712; the Upper Belvedere, intended for display and festivities, was completed in 1723.

Between them lies a formal garden in the French manner designed by Dominique Girard, laid out in three large terraces with symmetrical parterres, basins, steps, cascades, clipped hedges and sculpture. The upper palace is best seen from the bottom of the garden, rising above its terraces, while from its own front the view runs back over the garden towards the inner city.

After Eugene's death the complex was bought in 1752 by Maria Theresa, and between 1776 and 1781 the imperial picture collection was installed in the Upper Belvedere – one of the first public art museums in the world. In 1896 it became the residence of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and in 1903 a modern gallery opened here. On 15 May 1955 the Austrian State Treaty, which restored Austria's independence, was signed in the Upper Belvedere. Today the palaces hold the national collection of Austrian art, famous above all for Gustav Klimt's The Kiss and major works by Schiele and Kokoschka. The Belvedere is part of the Historic Centre of Vienna World Heritage site.

Getting there

The palaces are in Vienna's third district, Landstraße, about 1 km from the inner city: the Upper Belvedere on Prinz-Eugen-Straße, the Lower Belvedere on Rennweg. Tram D stops at Schloss Belvedere by the upper palace gate, and Wien Hauptbahnhof is about 15 minutes on foot. Vienna International Airport (VIE) is about 17 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Belvedere is a historic building complex and art museum in Vienna, Austria. The complex consists of two Baroque palaces, the Upper and Lower Belvedere, together with the Orangery, the Palace Stables, and a formal Baroque garden. It is located in the city's third district, Landstraße, on the south-eastern edge of Vienna's historic centre. Built as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the complex was designed principally by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and completed in the early eighteenth century.

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Belvedere, Vienna

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia