Palais Attems
The Palais Attems , in the state of Styria in Austria , is located in the Grazer Sackstraße in the first district of the inner city . It is "the most important aristocratic palace in Styria". The Small Palais Attems, also known as the Widow's Palace , adjoins the building. The Reinerhof and Palais Khuenburg are on the opposite side of Sackstrasse , and the Trinity Church on the same side of the street .
history
The founder of the Graz line of the Attems aristocratic family from Friuli , Ignaz Maria Graf Attems, acquired six town houses between 1687 and 1702, which were located on the area of today's palace. He commissioned the architect Johann Joachim Carlone to build a city palace. Another builder involved is suspected to be Andreas Stengg . The work lasted from 1702 to 1716. Carlone is said to have used Genoese models in his plans and worked on the palace until 1705. At that time, the first sack gate still existed in this area of Sackstrasse as part of the Gothic city wall.
Count Ignaz Maria von Attems, who had the interior of the building richly decorated, began to build up the most important private art collection in Styria. It included paintings, weapons, tapestries and armor, as well as a large library. After the death of the owner, the Palais Attems passed through a family fideikommiss to the first-born son. Count Franz Dismas Attems added numerous wall paneling and tiled stoves to the interior between 1732 and 1750.
Franz Disma's son, Ignaz Maria II, added other works of art from his travels through Europe to the collection. The furnishings with rococo wall paneling and the tiled stoves were completed by him. When Count Ferdinand Attems was elected Governor of Styria in 1800, work on the interior was not yet finished. The wood paneling was decorated with gold carvings. Over a hundred years later, with the outbreak of World War I , the Attems aristocratic family began to decline. From 1915 to 1946 the city palace was owned by Count Ferdinand III. Attems, who rented some rooms to the city of Graz. In 1933 the gallery space of the art collection began to be opened to the public.
As a result of the Second World War , the Palais Attems lost numerous art treasures. Even the liveries of the servants' cloakroom were looted. Damaged by a bomb hit in 1945, the sale of the art collection, the library and the weapons collection began in 1946. Since the Counts of Attems had lost large parts of their property in Yugoslavia during the war and the palace had to be restored, their financial situation turned out to be precarious.
Ignaz Maria V. Attems moved to Vienna in 1958 and left an empty palace behind. In 1962 he decided to sell the palace to the state of Styria. Two years later, the renovation of the north and east facade began, and in 1968 the courtyard side. The interior restoration lasted from 1971 to 1982.
Today the Palais houses the offices of styriarte , the Styrian Autumn Festival , the editorial staff of the literary magazine manuskripte and two of the six Graz CV links . Individual rooms are rented out for special occasions.
Architecture and design
Exterior construction
The U-shaped, block-like building with four floors surrounds an almost square inner courtyard. The baroque facade is richly decorated with stucco by Domenico Boscho both on the street side and in the inner courtyard . The facade design was under the influence of northern Italian palace buildings. Both street fronts serve as representative facades. The lower mezzanine floors were combined to form a base zone and have windows with rusting stone frames. The windows on the two upper floors have browbones and vases decorated with stucco. The upper storeys of the facade are separated from the lower zone by ionic and composite pilasters, between which a cornice runs.
On the side of the “ Sackstraße ” there is a massive rustik-round arched stone portal. It is flanked by rusting pillars. A sandstone alliance coat of arms of the Attems and Wurmbrand family is attached to the arch of the portal. It represents the connection between the builder Count Ignaz Maria Attems and his first wife, Countess Maria Regina Wurmbrand. Above the coat of arms there is an arbor with a stone balustrade with figurative representations. The carved gate leaves with the fittings come from the time of construction. The gate is closed by a wrought iron skylight grille in the shape of a tendril. The wrought-iron window grilles also date from the middle of the 18th century.
Interior
The interior was furnished in three phases. From 1706 the ceiling stucco work was carried out under the overall direction of Domenico Boscho . His client was Count Ignaz Maria I. Attems. After 1702 Franz Carl Remp and his assistants painted the ceiling and supraport paintings, as well as several Secco paintings. The first phase of the design was completed by around 1710.
Under Count Franz Dismas Attems and his son Ignaz Maria II, the wall paneling and tiled stoves were made to designs by Josef Hueber . In the third phase, under Count Ferdinand Attems, Josephine-Classicist carved decorations were attached to the wall paneling and the tiled stoves.
In all rooms on the two upper floors, ceiling stucco in the transition from acanthus - and foliage - to bandwork ornamentation can be seen. In addition, the stucco is decorated with gold, silver and copper plating. The ceiling and supraport pictures contain representations from the Old Testament and an ancient mythological motif. The pieces in the extensive art collection were lost in the post-war period.
ground floor
The portal leads to a two-bay vestibule , the ceiling of which is decorated with delicate stucco and foliage. To the side of this, two staircases with openwork stone balustrades and lanterns on stone posts lead to the upper floors. After the entrance there are stone gates to the right and left with pairs of stucco putti holding vases . The ground floor rooms are decorated with rich stucco, some of them in the shell style. In the east wing, the narrow Steigenhaus with a two-armed staircase is particularly worth mentioning.
1st floor
The first floor was previously used as a grand floor for representative purposes; the state rooms there are “among the most beautiful [...] that the Austrian Baroque has achieved at this level of style.” The paintings by Franz Carl Remp , which depict motifs from the Bible and antiquity as well as allegorical allusions to the Attems family, also contribute. A ceiling fresco depicting the apotheosis of the Attems house can be seen in the anteroom . The “State Room” is furnished with numerous wall and ceiling paintings. It also contains five tapestries from Heinrich Reydam's Brussels factory and a tiled stove with a relief decoration. The so-called “fireplace room” is furnished with numerous representations of mythological figures.
2nd Floor
The family's living quarters were initially housed on the second floor, later they were converted into a library and a picture gallery. Towards the end of the Second World War, a large part of the rich furnishings was lost, including the largest private collection of paintings in Styria. The rooms worth seeing include the “Great Salon” with magnificent ceiling paintings, also known as the “Monkey Hall”. It shows grotesque paintings with exotic figures and depictions of landscapes. Semi-plastic monkeys made of bronze emerge from the ceiling. The ceiling painting, which shows Apollo and Abundantia in the circle of the arts and sciences, is framed by eight medallions. The neighboring “bird room” is rich in scenes from Greek mythology. It got its name because of the depictions of birds of all kinds.
literature
- Walter Brunner : Bombs on Graz . Leykam, Graz 1989, ISBN 3-7011-7201-3 .
- Herwig Ebner: Castles and palaces Graz, Leibnitz and West Styria . Birken, Vienna 1967, ISBN 3-85030-028-5 , p. 79-80 .
- Horst Schweigert: DEHIO Graz . Schroll, Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-7031-0475-9 , p. 95-99 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Hans Riehl in an expert opinion for the State of Styria, quoted from verwaltung.steiermark.at ( memento of the original from June 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Entry about Graz - Palais Attems on Burgen-Austria
- ↑ a b c Schweigert: Dehio Graz. P. 95.
- ↑ Ebner: Castles and Palaces. P. 79.
- ^ Schweigert: Dehio Graz. Pp. 95-96.
- ↑ a b Schweigert: Dehio Graz. P. 96.
- ^ Schweigert: Dehio Graz. P. 97.
- ^ Schweigert: Dehio Graz. P. 98.
- ^ Schweigert: Dehio Graz. Pp. 98-99.
Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 21.4 ″ N , 15 ° 26 ′ 10.2 ″ E