Palais Schwarzenberg

Schwarzenberg Palace is a baroque palace in Vienna located opposite Schwarzenbergplatz, in the III Landstraße district, Vienna.

Construction of the building began in 1697 under the direction of the architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt. The construction was also supervised by Anton Erhard Martinelli.

The commissioner of the work was Count Heinrich-Franz von Mansfield, prince of Fondi and great military commander, who intended to rival another great figure of the war against the Turks just ended, Prince Eugene of Savoy who in Vienna, in the same years, he was building the Belvedere Palace. The initial purchase of the land for the construction of the building was inexpensive since the area had been sacked fourteen years earlier by the Turks who had invaded Vienna and since then the area has remained uncultivated.

Unfortunately, before the construction was finished, von Mansfield died and his heirs, in 1715 sold the building with the building under construction to an influential politician, Prince Adam Franz Karl von Schwarzenberg. The Schwarzenberg family, originally from Bohemia, intended to transfer the center of their power to Vienna after the recent successes of war and as such the opportunity of erecting the palace was a real stroke of luck. With the great financial power accumulated by the Schwarzenbergs, the project was entrusted to the famous architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach who, after a series of variations, completed the construction in 1728. It was always this architect who also designed the large baroque gardens on the back with a complex system of hydraulic pumps (the first in the Empire) for the operation of the many fountains. In 1751 the cavalry school and the orangery were also added. One of the most important and certainly richest in decoration rooms is the Marmorgalerie (marble gallery). Throughout the eighteenth century the palace, known for its splendor, became one of the favorite destinations of the Viennese aristocracy.

In the nineteenth century, much of the original baroque park of the Schwarzenberg Palace was modified to make room for an English garden, more spontaneous and without the typical parterres of baroque garden architecture. In the same period, moreover, a long aqueduct was also completed that brought water to Vienna directly from the Styria Alps and a connection was also established for the palace where a large fountain was built on the front of the building, the Hochstrahlbrunnen.

During the Second World War the palace was damaged by some bombing but was soon repaired after the war. The Soviets who occupied Vienna after the collapse of Nazism erected a memorial at the Schwarzenberg Palace dedicated to Russian soldiers who fell during the liberation conflicts in Austria.

Today, part of the structure has been converted into a five-star hotel and is also used by the municipal administration of Vienna for festivals and events.