Equitable Palace
The Palais Equitable is a palace in Vienna's 1st district, Innere Stadt, on Stock-im-Eisen-Platz 3.
Originally there have been five small houses here since the Middle Ages , which were demolished between 1856 and 1886, partly to enable the Kärntner Straße to be widened.
From 1887 to 1891, the New York life insurance company Equitable had one of the most impressive palaces in Vienna built here by the architect Andreas Streit . It is one of the few Viennese “palaces” that are so called even though they were never the seat of the nobility . The stick in the iron is placed in a niche on the corner of Kärntner Strasse .
The facade of the palace is richly decorated and on the gable there is an American eagle - matching the client . On the roof there is a sailing ship that symbolically represents the global activities of American insurance. The original rigging of the ship has not been attached after a restoration.
The bronze reliefs on the entrance door represent the legend of the stick in iron and were created by Rudolf Weyr , the other sculptures are by Viktor Tilgner and Johann Schindler . The palace is decorated very impressive in the interior, for the magnificent staircase and the vestibule was marble from Hallein and granite from Saxony used. The inner courtyard is completely covered with tiles and majolica . In the anteroom there is a ceiling painting, which, like the stucco decoration on the first floor, was made by Julius Victor Berger .
The kuk court purveyor Wilhelm Beck & Sons had his shop in the building. The palace was badly damaged in an air raid in February 1944 and had to be evacuated. In 1949 the building was repaired again, the entrance area was redesigned in 1997 by Rüdiger Lainer .
Today the Palais Equitable is the seat of various companies and organizations.
literature
- L (udwig) Gassebner: Report on the inspection of the new “Equitable” building in Vienna on September 23, 1891. In: Weekly of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects , year 1891, No. 44/1891 (XVI. Year), p . 391 ff. (Online at ANNO ). .
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 28.4 " N , 16 ° 22 ′ 17.5" E