Belvedere
August 07, 2010

The extensive Belvedere is situated in Vienna's 3^rd district. It consists of two magnificent Baroque palaces the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Orangery and the Palace Stables. These buildings are situated in a Baroque park landscape. Belvedere's name refers to the beautiful view over Vienna, which could be enjoyed at Maria Theresia's time.

The complex was built as summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy. He bought the ground in 1697 and chose Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt as the chief architect for this project. The Palaces' architecture and interior design are typical for Rococo style. In 1803, Europe's first alpine garden was created in the extensive park.

Today, both palaces house museums. The Lower Belvedere, which was built between 1714 and 1716, was a garden villa, which served Prince Eugene as pleasure palace during the summer months. Today, the Lower Belvedere is a museum, which stages temporary exhibitions with artworks from all over the world. Here you can also discover Prince Eugene's staterooms.

The Upper Belvedere, which is in comparison to the Lower Belvedere especially luxurious, had primarily representative functions. Today it hosts the world's largest Klimt collection with the famous golden pictures The Kiss and Judith. Works by Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka are displayed as well. In addition to this, you can visit the "gold cabinet", situated in the north eastern corner pavilion of the Upper Belvedere, which was destroyed in a fire in 1950 and replaced by a copy.

 

How to get to Belvedere Palace:

Upper Belvedere - Subway U1 (get off at "Südtirolerplatz") or Tram D (get off at "Schloss Belvedere")
Lower Belvedere - Tram 71 (get off at "Unteres Belvedere")