Schwarzenberg Palace

The Palais Schwarzenberg is a palace in Vienna’s Landstrasse area.It is one of Vienna’s most prominent baroque garden palaces.

The Schwarzenberg family still owns the palace through their family foundation.The Swiss embassy and consular services are housed in a side wing of the palace, the former riding school on Prinz-Eugen-Straße.

Until January 2006, the Palais served as a 5-star hotel as well as a restaurant.Since August 2006, portions of the land, including the park, have been available for events.

The Schwarzenberg’sche Familienstiftung leased the property to a Volksbank affiliate for 60 years in 2007, with Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber holding the right of usage.The goal, according to the operator, was to turn the castle into a “6-star deluxe hotel.”The opening was supposed to happen in 2011, however the conversion never happened.The project was in risk of collapsing in February 2011 if Al Jaber did not deliver 20 million euros by the end of March.The contract with Al Jaber’s group of firms was cancelled by the Volksbank group on April 4, 2011 since the promised payment did not materialize.As a consequence, the contract between Volksbanken Group and the Schwarzenberg family foundation expired.

In accordance with the Schwarzenberg’sche Familienstiftung, a casino corporation from Baden im Aargau, Switzerland, competed in the summer 2013 bidding for additional casino licenses in Vienna: The Grand Casino Wien at the Palais was supposed to have two casinos as well as a restaurant.The Schwarzenberg Family Foundation said that once the casino license was approved here, the Palais Park will be available to the public.The casino license was granted to the partnership on June 27, 2014.The project eventually collapsed in 2019 after a year-long legal fight over the issuance of the license owing to an opposition by Casinos Austria.

Gardens (Schwarzenberggarten)

Hildebrandt and the Erlachs constructed the garden as an Italian – French baroque tiered garden in 1697.It resembled the adjacent Belvedere garden, which was constructed by the same time and garden designer as this one but is only retained in its fundamental aspects.A Raptus group and Four Seasons by Lorenzo Matielli (after 1712), garden vases by JB v. Erlach, and others have survived, in addition to the circular fountain and center axis.In the 18th century, JE v. Erlach’s fire engine for the running of the garden games was regarded as the most important technological sight in Vienna.

In 1873, on the occasion of the construction of Vienna’s first high spring pipeline, the little park in front of the palace surrounding the high-jet fountain was established on land that did not originally belong to the palace.The complex, like the castle, was severely damaged during WWII and was revived in the postwar years as a park with French components along the main axis.There is currently a lovely supply of trees.

Despite the alterations, the garden is one of the most significant garden-architectural monuments in Austria and is protected by monument law (No. 54 in the appendix to 1 Para. 12 DMSG and on the monument list as a whole).A natural monument is a sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum ; NDM No. 506, 1959 ).

History

The Supreme Court Marshal Heinrich Franz Graf von Mansfeld and Prince von Fondi commissioned the Palais Mansfeld-Fondi from Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt in 1697.The shell was finished in 1704.

The summer palace, with its exquisite garden, is located right next to the Belvedere Palace, which was also built at the period for Prince Eugene of Savoy by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt.While the Palais Mansfeld-Fondi was being erected, the Prince of Mansfeld died.Adam Franz Karl Prince of Schwarzenberg purchased the incomplete property in 1716.To construct it, the prince commissioned the architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach.Daniel Grancreated the dome fresco in 1726, as well as the ceiling paintings in the Great Hall and other overdoors.It was ultimately finished in 1728. The engineer Andrea Altomonte erected the riding school to the east in 1751/52 (reworked by Karl Wilhelm Schmidt in 1927-29).The costly furnishings and significant artwork collection were mostly sourced from the family’s former winter home, the ancient Schwarzenberg dynasty Palais Schwarzenberg on the New Market, which was razed in 1894 and replaced with apartment complexes.

During World War II, bombing strikes severely destroyed the Palais Schwarzenberg.However, it was completely reconstructed after the war.

Hermann Czech, an architect, refurbished the main structure between 1982 and 1984.

Vienna, Austria