Grassalkovics Palace
The Palais Grassalkovics , often Grassalkovich , located on the 2nd Viennese district , Leopoldstadt , with today's address Upper Augartenstraße 40th
history
The area of the palace was one of the floodplains of the unregulated Danube near Vienna and was located on the river island called Unterer Werd , which could be flooded in the event of flooding until the first Viennese Danube regulation was completed in 1875. Historical high water marks can be seen on the inside of the main gate to the Augarten , exactly opposite the Palais .
In 1777 the very large garden in Wolfsau, which was named Eggerscher Garten after its owner, Joseph von Egger, was parceled out. It was in an excellent location opposite the Alte Favorita in Augarten, where Emperor Joseph II liked to spend the summer in the "Josefsstöckl", which is still there today.
In 1789, Prince Anton Grassalkovics II (at that time also spelled Antal Grassalkovich in Hungarian ), son of Anton Grassalkovics I , the Hungarian "finance minister" Maria Theresa , bought the plot of land on today's Obere Augartenstrasse and began redesigning the single-storey building from Previous owner since 1780, Johann Georg Mayer, had been built. The prince's intention to become the emperor's summer neighbor was not fulfilled, since Joseph II died in 1790; the prince died in 1794 shortly after the completion of the palace.
His son Anton or Antal III. had to sell the property to repay debts in 1796. From then on it changed hands frequently. The courtyard wing of the palace built in 1828 contained rental apartments. Around 1960, the Almdudler beverage company resided in the street wing ; the producer company A. & S. Klein KG received the right to use the national coat of arms in 1971.
The Viennese city administration bought the dilapidated building from this company in 1975 in order to ensure its preservation. The original plan was to house a city museum or a city-owned collection in the palace. The rooms turned out to be too small for that. In 1987 the city handed the building over to its Gesiba company (non-profit settlement and construction company). Gesiba built a new residential building with an underground car park in the courtyard instead of the old wing and adapted the palace for office use. From April 1991 to the end of June 2014 it was the seat of the Vienna Tourist Board . On July 1, 2014, he opened new offices in Vienna 3rd, Invalidenstrasse 6, as the palace had long since become too small for him.
description
The three-storey classicist building is structured by a three-axis central projection with giant Ionic pilasters and a mansard hipped roof with parapet armor. The middle field is dominated by the princely coat of arms with the initials MT, which led to the incorrect name "Maria-Theresia-Schlössl", which used to be popular.
On the main floor is a balcony with a wrought iron fence, which is supported by four Tuscan columns extends the central projection. The basket arch portal located below is flanked by two side entrances with triangular gable roofing with a serrated frieze . (The entrance to the underground car park under the new courtyard wing is not through the historic driveway from which the staircase leads to the ballroom, but through a newly constructed driveway in the neighboring house.)
French arched windows on the first floor of the central project stand in contrast to the windows and wrought iron grilles on the side fronts suspected to be brackets with triangular gables. The windows on the second floor have the usual size in servants' rooms, the skylights in the newly furnished floors 3 and 4 in the former attic are only facing the inner courtyard and cannot be seen on the street side for monument protection reasons.
Most of the palace has no basement; During the restoration, which began in 1988, it turned out that there was only a professional foundation under every second pillar of the driveway.
See also
literature
- Dehio Vienna, II. To IX. and XX. District. ISBN 3-7031-0680-8 , p. 20
- Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 2: De-Gy. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-218-00544-2 , p. 591.
- Richard Perger: The history of the Palais Grassalkovics in Leopoldstadt. In: Wiener Geschichtsblätter , vol. 47, Vienna 1992, p. 150 f.
Web links
- Palais Grassalkovics on planet-vienna.com
- Entry about Palais Grassalkovics on Burgen-Austria
Coordinates: 48 ° 13 '18.8 " N , 16 ° 22' 33.6" E