Augarten Palace

Vienna, Austria

Palais Augarten was constructed in the late 17th century by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach on the site of a hunting château and gardens. In 1780 this palace came into the possession of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Until the beginning of the twentieth century it remained in the possession of the Habsburg family. During this period, and especially in the nineteenth century, many balls were held in the palace, and a salon was opened. Among the guests at that time were Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, and Hans Makart.

The greatest ball in the Palais Augarten took place on the occasion of the Viennese World's Fair of 1873; among the guests were Emperor Francis Joseph I and Czar Alexander II of Russia. In 1897 the palace was significantly remodelled for the family of Archduke Otto, the nephew of Emperor Francis Joseph.

Despite extensive damage suffered during World War II, the palace has been maintained almost in its original appearance, and many of the original furnishings can still be found there. Today, Palais Augarten is the home and rehearsal space of the Vienna Boys' Choir, who also have their own school there. The palace is located on 130-acre Augarten park, which is the oldest Baroque garden in Vienna.

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Address

Castellezgasse 23-25, Vienna, Austria
See all sites in Vienna

Details

Founded: 1692
Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Austria

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

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User Reviews

Kathryn Platzer (13 months ago)
There is a special walled off area with picnic table and sandpit. ideal for children's parties. You can't book so go early to get the table and stake your claim.
stefan zeisler (13 months ago)
beautiful garden with a bunker in the middle.... nice for little walks and lying inthe sun
Lola Bee (13 months ago)
Interesting and beautiful baroque park where young Mozart gave his concerts,currently famous Vienna Boys Choir has got home there.Very good park cafe(entrance through the wall or from the park).Gloomy huge brown buildings dotted in the park were built by Nazis during the war.Apparently locals would like very much to get rid of them but the walls of those monsters are so thick that it is impossible to destroy them without damaging nearby houses.So they are standing there and reminding about the past.
Michael Wlaschitz (15 months ago)
One of the best parks of Vienna for a walk or run. One circle is 2,2km, so 3 of them make a great half an hour run!
Armin Obersteiner (2 years ago)
A nice garden with a pool for families, late night screaming of movies and picnics. No street lamps, so it's dark fast and super dark in winter.
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Historic Site of the week

Kromeriz Castle and Gardens

Kroměříž stands on the site of an earlier ford across the River Morava. The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens and described as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first residence on the site was founded by bishop Stanislas Thurzo in 1497. The building was in a Late Gothic style, with a modicum of Renaissance detail. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was sacked by the Swedish army (1643).

It was not until 1664 that a bishop from the powerful Liechtenstein family charged architect Filiberto Lucchese with renovating the palace in a Baroque style. The chief monument of Lucchese's work in Kroměříž is the Pleasure Garden in front of the castle. Upon Lucchese's death in 1666, Giovanni Pietro Tencalla completed his work on the formal garden and had the palace rebuilt in a style reminiscent of the Turinese school to which he belonged.

After the castle was gutted by a major fire in March 1752, Bishop Hamilton commissioned two leading imperial artists, Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Josef Stern, arrived at the residence in order to decorate the halls of the palace with their works. In addition to their paintings, the palace still houses an art collection, generally considered the second finest in the country, which includes Titian's last mythological painting, The Flaying of Marsyas. The largest part of the collection was acquired by Bishop Karel in Cologne in 1673. The palace also contains an outstanding musical archive and a library of 33,000 volumes.

UNESCO lists the palace and garden among the World Heritage Sites. As the nomination dossier explains, 'the castle is a good but not outstanding example of a type of aristocratic or princely residence that has survived widely in Europe. The Pleasure Garden, by contrast, is a very rare and largely intact example of a Baroque garden'. Apart from the formal parterres there is also a less formal nineteenth-century English garden, which sustained damage during floods in 1997.

Interiors of the palace were extensively used by Miloš Forman as a stand-in for Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace during filming of Amadeus (1984), based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who actually never visited Kroměříž. The main audience chamber was also used in the film Immortal Beloved (1994), in the piano concerto scene.

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