Belvedere Palace

The Belvedere is a historic architectural complex in Vienna, Austria that includes two Baroque palaces (the Upper and Lower Belvedere), the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are placed in a Baroque park environment in the city’s third district, on the city’s south-eastern outskirts. It is home to the Belvedere Museum. The gardens feature ornate tiered waterfalls and cascades, Baroque statues, and towering wrought iron gates situated on a gradual incline. The Baroque palace complex was created as Prince Eugene of Savoy’s vacation retreat.

The Belvedere was constructed during an era of enormous development in Vienna, which was both the imperial capital and the residence of the governing Habsburg dynasty at the time. This time of prosperity followed the victorious end of a series of battles against the Ottoman Empire by commander-in-chief Prince Eugene of Savoy.

Gardens

The garden is the complex’s oldest component.Dominique Girard, a Le Nôtre student, designed it in 1700, shortly after the site was bought, and it was completed in 1725.Horticulture also includes water infrastructure; Prince Eugen had been granted permission to utilize the imperial court water pipe and had many fountains erected.The twelve fountains were restored between 2005 and 2010, after the systems connecting the Upper and Lower Belvedere had been rendered inoperable owing to severe water losses since 1994.

Because the Upper Belvedere is around 23 meters higher than the Lower Belvedere, the statues depict the ascension from the underworld to Olympus.A staircase was created to connect the two sections.The garden is separated into three parterres: top, middle, and bottom.The Chamber Garden is located to the side of the Lower Belvedere, in the Orangery area, and is isolated from the rest of the garden.At the request of Friedrich Carl Emil von der Lühe, a department was established in this region specifically for the flora of the Austrian monarchy, which was led by Nicolaus Thomas Host (1761-1834) but was reported as being in chaos as early as 1827.

Two artistically crafted cascading waterfalls highlight the level disparities.The upper of the two (Fountain 4) is known as the “Great Cascade Fountain” or simply “Cascade Fountain,” and it is made up of two pools joined by a five-tiered cascade.The lower one is known as the “Shell Fountain” (Fountain 7) because tritons in its middle contain a basin filled with shells.On each of the three parterres and in the chamber garden, there are two smaller fountains with putti and naiads, with the ones on the upper parterre and in the chamber garden being circular and the others being regularly constructed. Among the twelve fountains are the wall fountain at the Orangery (Fountain 12) and the “Great Basin” (Fountain 1, also known as “Great Pond”) south of the Upper Belvedere.

While the upper parterre is defined by its sculptural embellishment of sphinxes, the lower parterre has a more intricate program.Eight muses are portrayed in sculptures along the side streets, with the ninth, Calliope, standing with Hercules.There are additional allegories of fire and water, as well as a portrayal of Apollo and Daphne.Giovanni Stanetti sculpted these sculptures.

A ramp with a railing at the edge of the central parterre is lined with allegorical portrayals of the month in the shape of putti.They were designed to replace previous figures in 1852.

The semi-circular menagerie is located east of the Upper Belvedere.The semicircular wall has seven deity figurines in niches.

Since 1780, the facility has been available to the public.(After the death of Maria Theresa, Joseph II assumed sole control in Austria in this year.) The gardens, as well as the massive fountain, are progressively being restored at great expense in compliance with UNESCO World Heritage rules.

The Upper Belvedere alpine garden, with an area of around 2,500 m2, is one of Europe’s oldest alpine gardens, dating back approximately 150 years.The collection, known as Alpinum, dates back to Archduke Johann, brother of Emperor Franz II, and was first formed in Schönbrunn Palace Park in 1803.In 1865, the Alpinum was united with Host’s Garden (Flora Austriaca), a collection of flora from Austrian royal territories in the Belvedere’s old kitchen garden.The Belvedere Gardens were taken over by the Republic of Austria after the end of the war in 1918 and have been overseen by the Federal Gardens ever since.The University of Vienna took over the Host Garden in 1930 and incorporated it into the University of Vienna’s Botanical Garden.The Alpine Garden, on the other hand, remained with the Belvedere Garden and therefore under the control of the Federal Gardens.

Lower Belvedere

On November 30, 1697, one year after starting work on the Stadtpalais, Prince Eugene bought a large tract of land south of the Rennweg, the major route to Hungary. The Belvedere garden complex was designed right away. The prince picked Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt as the project’s primary architect over Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, the designer of his Stadtpalais. Hildebrandt (1668-1745), whom the general met during a military battle in Piedmont, had previously erected Ráckeve Palace for him on Csepel, an island in the Danube south of Budapest, in 1702. He eventually went on to construct countless additional structures in his service. The architect had studied civil engineering under Carlo Fontana in Rome and had joined the imperial service in 1695-96 to learn how to build fortifications. Records reveal that he worked as a court architect in Vienna beginning in 1696. Other notable works by Hildebrandt include the Schloss Hof Palace, which was also commissioned by Prince Eugene, the Schwarzenberg Palace (formerly known as the Mansfeld-Fondi Palace), the Kinsky Palace, and the entire Göttweig Monastery estate in the Wachau Valley.

When the prince planned to purchase the property on the outskirts of Vienna for his Belvedere project, it was entirely undeveloped – an excellent location for a manicured garden and summer home. However, a month before the prince’s purchase, the imperial Grand Marshal Count Heinrich Franz von Mansfeld, Prince of Fondi, acquired the next site and commissioned Hildebrandt to build a garden castle on it. To purchase the property, Prince Eugene was compelled to take out a substantial debt secured against his still-under-construction Stadtpalais. He purchased additional surrounding plots of land in 1708, 1716, and 1717-18 to allow him to gradually enlarge the garden.

According to records, construction on the Lower Belvedere began in 1712, as Prince Eugene requested a building inspection on July 5, 1713. Work moved quickly, and in 1715, Marcantonio Chiarini of Bologna began painting the quadratura in the center hall. In April 1716, the envoy from Spanish Flanders paid a visit to the Lower Belvedere and the Stadtpalais. As the Lower Belvedere was portrayed on an early cityscape, extensive work was done on the grounds at the same time as building on the Lustschloss.Dominique Girard altered the garden’s ideas extensively between January and May 1717 in order for it to be finished by the following summer. Girard, who worked as a fontainier du roi, or king’s water engineer, at Versailles from 1707 to 1715, began working as a garden inspector for Bavarian elector Maximilian Emanuel in 1715. He was hired by Prince Eugene on the advice of the latter. Giovanni Stanetti’s best-known piece is the balustrade statuary.

Upper Belvedere

The building of the Upper Belvedere began in 1717, as evidenced by two letters written from Belgrade to Prince Eugene’s servant Benedetti in summer 1718, documenting the progress of work on the palace. By 2 October 1719, construction had progressed sufficiently for the prince to welcome the Turkish ambassador Ibrahim Pasha there. The interior decorating began as early as 1718. In 1719, he commissioned the altarpiece for the Palace Chapel as well as the ceiling fresco in the Golden Room from the Italian painter Francesco Solimena. Gaetano Fanti was commissioned to create the illusionistic quadratura painting in the Marble Hall the same year. Carlo Carlone was commissioned in 1720 to paint the ceiling fresco of the Marble Hall, which he completed between 1721 and 1723.

The structure was finished in 1723. The Sala Terrena, on the other hand, was in danger of collapse owing to structural issues, and Hildebrandt was compelled to add a vaulted ceiling supported by four Atlas pillars in the winter of 1732-33, giving the room its current form. Between 1731 and 1740, Salomon Kleiner, an engineer from the Mainz elector’s court, published a ten-part publication with ninety plates titled Wunder würdiges Kriegs- und Siegs-Lager deß Unvergleichlichen Heldens Unserer Zeiten Eugenii Francisci Hertzogen zu Savoyen und Piemont (“Wonderful war and victory encampment of the supreme hero of our age Eugene Francis Duke of Savoyen und Pie

The Upper Belvedere is shown on a 20-cent Austrian euro coin.

Vienna, Austria