Lying at the heart of Vienna, the Liechtenstein City Palace on Bankgasse was built around 1700 and is regarded as the first significant example of High Baroque architecture in Vienna. Like the Garden Palace it underwent several years of meticulous restoration before opening in the spring of 2013 as the second location of the Princely Collections. It now houses a wealth of superb works from the Biedermeier and neoclassical eras, displayed in a sumptuous and authentic setting.
With its synthesis of Baroque fabric and original nineteenth-century Rococo Revival interiors, which represent the earliest and most important example of this style in Vienna, the palace constitutes a unique element in the city’s cultural landscape. Furnished largely in their original state, the rooms together with artworks from the neoclassical and Biedermeier eras form a highly unusual setting in which to experience the interplay between historic fabric, classic modern galleries and the exquisite holdings of the Princely Collections from this epoch that will opening up new and fascinating insights for the visitor.
The first and second floors of the City Palace with the Period Rooms and galleries are accessed via one of the most stunning Baroque stairways in Vienna. On the second floor original furniture, colourful silk wall hangings and Michael Thonet’s intricate parquet floors unite to form a harmonious whole, opening up views into past epochs.
The permanent exhibition brings together works of all genres: alongside an exquisite selection of paintings the objects on display range from elegant furniture and East Asian porcelain that was often finished with metal mounts after arriving in Vienna, to porcelain from the eras of du Paquier and Sorgenthal at the Vienna manufactory. Neoclassical sculpture is represented with works by Canova, Tenerani and Viennese sculptors, most of which were executed in Rome.
The ticking and chiming of clocks accompanies visitors on their tour of the galleries and former private apartments. One of these is David Roentgen’s ingenious long-case musical clock: following meticulous restoration, the tunes produced by the six original cylinders from 1792 allow us to immerse ourselves in the music of the time.
The wide variety of the objects on display – some of which have been in the ownership of the Princely House for a long time, occasionally even from the time they were made, and others that have been acquired for the Princely Collections within the past three decades – allows us to experience the whole range of the Biedermeier era in this palace, from sophisticated simplicity to the opulence of the early Rococo Revival that also made its first appearance at the Liechtenstein City Palace during this epoch.
Even during their heyday, neoclassical and Biedermeier art played a central role in the Princely Collections. The four rulers of the House during this epoch – Prince Franz Josef I, Prince Alois I, Prince Johann I und Prince Alois II von Liechtenstein – gave important commissions to contemporary artists, extending the holdings of the Collection on the highest level. Major works joined the Collections in this way: Friedrich von Amerling created one of the most touching child likenesses in the history of art with his “Portrait of Princess Marie Franziska von Liechtenstein”, showing the daughter of Alois II firmly clutching her colourful rag doll as she sleeps.
Many of the paintings were commissioned or purchased specifically to decorate the palace on Bankgasse, and the one or the other work still has its original frame to match the interior of the room where it hangs. The most sumptuous example is the frame of Friedrich von Amerling’s painting showing the five-year-old Johann Liechtenstein, later Prince Johann II (1840–1929), astride his grey pony. Today the portrait once again hangs above the fireplace of the Large Mahogany Room, as it did when the palace reopened after its remodelling in 1848. This room is only one of many serving as the setting for the permanent exhibition, where the history of the collections merges instructively with that of the palace and the family. In a cohesive cross-section the gallery shows the whole spectrum of Biedermeier art, from portraits, genre paintings and works with mythological subjects to landscape painting, from plain Biedermeier furniture to products of elaborate cabinet-making, together with exquisite applied arts objects.
The permanent exhibition at the Liechtenstein City Palace can be viewed as part of a guided tour.*
RESERVATIONS FOR PUBLIC AND INDIVIDUAL GUIDED TOURS
* Please note that the exhibition galleries at the Liechtenstein Garden Palace and City Palace, the sale of tickets, and the events and guided tours at both palaces are operated by Liechtenstein Gruppe AG. The contract partner for your tour reservation is Liechtenstein Gruppe AG.
The Princely Collections at the Liechtenstein City Palace – tour of the permanent exhibition
