Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Vienna's other art collections show off works by masters from around Europe, this has the
city's best collection of homegrown artists.
Cost and Hours:
€11 for Upper Belvedere Palace only, €16 for Upper and Lower
palaces (generally not worth it), gardens free except for the Orangerie (included in big tick-
et),audioguide-€4or€6/2people,daily10:00-18:00,LowerPalaceonlyuntil21:00onWed,
grounds open until dusk, no photos allowed inside, entrance at Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 27, tel.
01/7955-7134,
www.belvedere.at
.
EatingattheBelvedere:
There'sacharminglittlecaféonthegroundflooroftheUpper
Palace, where you can dine with portraits of the emperor and empress looking down upon
you; in summer you can sit outdoors in the garden.
Getting There:
The palace is a 15-minute walk south of the Ring. To get there from the
center, catch tram #D at the Opera (direction: Südbahnhof). Get off at the Schloss Belvedere
stop (just below the Upper Palace gate), cross the street, walk uphill one block, go through
the gate (on left), and look immediately to the right for the small building with the ticket
office.
Self-GuidedTour:
TheBelvederePalaceisactuallytwograndbuildings—theUpper
Palace and Lower Palace—separated by a fine garden. For our purposes, the
Upper Palace
is what matters. Buy your ticket at the office behind the palace, then go around to the front
to enter. Once inside, the palace's eclectic collection is tailor-made for browsing. There are
two grand floors, set around impressive middle halls.
Ground Floor:
The main floor displays a collection of Austrian Baroque (on the left)
and medieval art (on the right). The Baroque section includes a fascinating room of grotes-
quelygrimacingheadsby
FranzXaverMesserschmidt
(1736-1783),aquirky18th-century
Habsburg court sculptor who left the imperial life to follow his own, somewhat deranged
muse.Afterhispromisingcareerwascutshortbymentalillness,Messerschmidtrelocatedto
Bratislava andspenttherestofhisdayssculpting aseries ofeerily lifelike “character heads”
(Kopfstücke).
Their most unusual faces are contorted by extreme emotions.
• From the entrance, climb the staircase to the
first floor
and enter the grand red-and-gold,
chandeliered...
Marble Hall:
This was Prince Eugene's party room.
Belvedere
means “beautiful view,”
and the
view from the Marble Hall
is especially spectacular.
• Facing the garden, to the right is the...
East Wing:
Alongside Renoir's ladies, Monet's landscapes, and Van Gogh's rough
brushstrokes are similar works by their lesser-known Austrian counterparts. Around 1900,
Austrian artists come to the fore, soaking up Symbolism, Expressionism, and other Modern-
ist trends.
