Vienna Unwrapped Inspiration and Planning For Independent Travellers who are visiting Vienna
Vienna pictures palaces. More than 600 years of Habsburg Empire have produced dozens of imperial and aristocratic dwellings (called palais), from the Imperial Palace (Hofburg) and Schonbrunn Palace to the Belvedere Vienna, the Liechtenstein Palace, the Augarten Palace to Kinski Palace.
Vienna Pictures Palaces: Notes And Links
Imperial Palace Vienna
The Hofburg spreads across much of Old Vienna. Across thousands of square metres, the palace includes various residences, including the Imperial apartments, the Museums of Natural History and Fine Art, the treasury, the national theatre (Burgtheater), and the Spanish Riding School.
My tip: Join one of the seasonal Vienna balls in the Hofburg. It’s the most glamorous and fun way to experience the palace.
Schönbrunn Palace
Schönbrunn is our number one tourist attraction. The surrounding gardens and attractions, however, are also extremely popular with the Viennese. If you take a closer look at the window in my gallery of Vienna pictures, (palaces like Schonbrunn have so many that the individual design gets easily lost) you can see the essential design concept for the whole palace: baroque but not too overdone, dark green window shutters, black cast iron for the balconies, and gold ochre for the facade, known as Schönbrunn yellow.
Belvedere Vienna
The Belvedere Vienna consists of various buildings. The main ones are theUpper Belvedere, which houses the Austrian National Gallery and the largest collection of Gustav Klimt paintings, and the Lower Belvedere, which houses modern temporary exhibitions and the Medieval Collection.
Note: Most palaces can be photographed only from the outside.
Augarten Palace
Augarten Palace, home of the Vienna Boys Choir, is a late 17th century former Imperial palace. It also houses our traditional Augarten Porcelain Manufactory in a separate building. While Augarten Palace is closed to the public due to the ongoing boarding school of the Vienna Boys Choir, you can visit the porcelain manufactory and gardens. When you stroll around the baroque gardens (the oldest in Vienna) you can see one of the FLAK towers from World War II in the back.
Kinsky Palace
The baroque Kinsky Palace is one of my favourite palaces in Vienna. The building once belonged to an Imperial high military official and Austrian aristocrat. On warm summer evenings, you can dine in the inner courtyard at trendy restaurant Freyung 4.
Note: See the palace’s baroque grand staircase and the baroque frescoes of the first floor, which form part of the auction house ‘ImKinsky’.
Ferstel Palace
The Ferstel Palace, an Italian Renaissance-style town palace at Freyung, is most famous for housing the Café Central, and for its lovely historic shopping passage. You will pass it when you do the Old Vienna Walk.
Palais Lobkowitz
This palace was the first major baroque town palace in Vienna, built just after the end of the Turkish Wars in 1683. It is located close to Albertina museum and houses the Austrian Theater Museum. The architectural highlight is the Eroica Hall with its massive ceiling fresco. Ludwig van Beethoven played there regularly. His symphony ‘Eroica’ lent its name to the hall.
Old City Hall
Vienna’s former city hall dates from the 14th century. Its façade had been thoroughly baroquified in the 18th century. Its interiors are a little less spectacular but house two institutions which are open to the public: the Museum for the First District, and the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance.
Palais Batthyány
The enormous baroque palace spans the corner of Bankgasse and Herrengasse, close to Café Central. It was established by uniting Palais Orisini-Rosenberg and two other houses in Bankgasse. The palace was renovated in 2016. Austrian fashion brand Mothwurf boasts a fabulous shop in the ground floor. Most of the upper space is made of private luxury apartments.
Trautson Palace
The last image shows Trautson Palace, another building of baroque-era star architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, who also planned Schonbrunn Palace and the Church St. Charles Borromeo. The palace houses the Austrian Ministry of Justice and is closed to the public, but watch out for its beautiful façades.
To get to know Vienna’s key landmarks, visit the slideshow on Vienna Pictures Landmarks.
NOTE TO VIENNA PICTURES PALACES: You are free to use material from ‘Vienna Pictures Palaces’ if you credit www.vienna-unwrapped.com. Thank You!
back to Vienna Pictures
go to Vienna Sights
visit What To Do In Vienna
back to Vienna Unwrapped homepage