Vienna’s Belvedere Palace has a fine vista of the old city from a beautiful garden. Belvedere means ‘a place from which to see beauty’. The two magnificent palaces on the Belvedere grounds lie in the middle of a splendid park. They were constructed for Prince Eugene of Savoy by J.L. von Hildebrandt, a famous Baroque architect. At this time the Belvedere Palaces were still located outside Vienna’s defenses, but today they are a part of Vienna’s third district which is not far away from the very centre of Vienna. The Palaces’ architecture and interior design are typical for Rococo style.



At present both palaces have museums featuring Austrian painting. In the lower palace the “Österreichisches Barockmuseum" (Austrian Museum of Baroque Art) displays Austrian Art of the 18th century. In the upper palace one can visit the Austrian gallery with a collection of 19th- and 20th-century Austrian paintings. The Secession movement’s artists work such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele or Oskar Kokoschka.

In 1803, Europe’s first alpine garden was created in the extensive park area of Belvedere castle following a suggestion of Archduke Johann. Today, more than 4000 plants represent the diverse flora of the alpine ecosystem. Spring and early summer are the best times to visit as many plants foliate and start to flower.

The palace, one of the most beautiful Baroque constructions in the world, consists of two palaces - Upper and Lower Belvedere. A majority of the rooms were adapted to house the Austrian Gallery. In the Upper Belvedere, the Austrian Gallery of the 19th and 20th Centuries shows a marvelous collection of Austrian as well as international art from the last two centuries. It also contains prominent works of the French impressionists, the most important paintings of the Viennese Biedermeier era and major paintings by Romako, Makart, Boeckl, Wotruba, Hausner, Lehmden, Hundertwasser and many others.

In the lower Belvedere the Baroque Museum contains the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Maulbertsch, Messerschmidt and Donner. The Museum of Medieval Austrian Art in the Orangey of the Lower Belvedere features Romanesque and Gothic wood sculptures and altar panels, among them works by Pacher and Frueauf.

The two magnificent palaces on the Belvedere grounds lie in the middle of a splendid park. They were constructed for Prince Eugene of Savoy by J.L. von Hildebrandt, a famous Baroque architect.

Vienna’s Belvedere Palace has a fine scene of the old city from a beautiful garden. Belvedere means a place from which to see beauty. Though his parents were born in Italy, Prince Eugene was a Frenchman and well-acquainted with Versailles.

The Gardens connect the palaces, with elegant pools, fountains, sculpture, steps and cascades. Flawless clipped maple hedges bring the sky itself into the design. The theme is man’s journey from darkness to the divine light. After Prince Eugene’s death, in 1736, his estate passed to the Habsburgs and continued to be used for social gatherings of pomp and circumstances. Nowadays the Belvedere is the home of the Österreichische Galerie and a Barockmuseum.