Liechtenstein Palace on Fürstengasse

Brief information

The Liechtenstein Palace began not as a museum address, but as the southern part of a purchased garden in Rossau. On the northern part of the same land, Prince Hans-Adam I established a brewery and manorial lands; from these grew Vienna’s Lichtental district. So the word “Garden” in the name is not an embellishment here, but a trace of the estate’s earlier layout: the palace was connected with a large suburban plot, rather than standing on its own as an urban residence.

Later, this private estate became a place where the family collection could be viewed by the public: from 1805 to 1938, it was housed here. Today the palace is important for its dual role: it is a Baroque palace of the princely Liechtenstein family and a place associated with their art collection, where paintings and sculptures are read not separately from the building, but within the former residence.

What to notice first

It makes sense to look at the palace as the result of a choice between beauty and utility. In the 1688 competition, Fischer von Erlach’s design was rejected: it was delicate and openwork, but not very functional. Domenico Egidio Rossi’s design won, but it too was soon replaced by a design by Domenico Martinelli. Behind the facade of the completed Baroque palace stands not a single authorial gesture, but a series of decisions about what a princely building suitable for both living and representation should be.

You can compare three physical supports of this place: the palace itself, its garden origin, and the collection housed in it. The name Gartenpalais recalls the estate in Rossau; the Baroque form of the building recalls the palace project completed by 1700; the paintings and sculptures from four centuries explain why the former residence long served as a space for displaying art. In this way, the palace is read not only through its style, but also through its changing functions.