Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
worked in Germany, Britain and Holland until his favourite student, Joseph I, elevated
him in 1705 to head of imperial architecture in the Habsburg-ruled lands.
Although Fischer von Erlach's original plans for Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna would
be revised, the palace is one of his true masterpieces and was built from 1700. It counts
among the world's finest baroque palaces and landscaped gardens, comprising the palace
itself, perfectly laid-out gardens, baroque fountains, mythological figures inspired from
classical epochs, and an area used for hunting game that today is Vienna's zoo.
Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt
Alongside Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna's other baroque palace masterpiece, Schloss
Belvedere, was designed by Austria's second great architect of the era, Johann Lukas von
Hildebrandt (1668-1745).
In his day, Hildebrandt fell into the long shadow cast by Fischer von Erlach. Like his
renowned fellow architect, Hildebrandt headed the Habsburgs' Hofbauamt (Imperial
Construction Office). His great works were not churches - although he built several of
these - or grand abodes for the royal court, but primarily palaces for the aristocracy. He
became the architect of choice for the field marshal and statesman Prince Eugene of Sa-
voy, and it was Prince Eugene who commissioned Hildebrandt to build for him a summer
residence in Vienna. Today the magnificent ensemble of palaces and gardens comprising
Schloss Belvedere is Hildebrandt's most important legacy.
Baroque Across Austria
The Viennese palaces and churches were a high point in the art of the baroque, but the
style was of course prevalent right across Austria. In Salzburg, when fire completely des-
troyed the city's Romanesque cathedral, the new Salzburger Dom (Salzburg Cathedral)
was completed in place of the former cathedral in the baroque style in 1628. Meanwhile,
in Melk on the Danube River, Jakob Prandtauer (1660-1726) and his disciple Josef
Munggenast (1660-1741) completed the monastery Stift Melk between 1702 and 1738.
In Graz, Schloss Eggenberg was commissioned in 1625 to the Italian architect Giovanni
Pietro de Pomis (1565-1633), giving Austria another fine baroque palace and gardens.
