Liechtenstein Garden Palace

The Gartenpalais Liechtenstein was built in the 1690s and 1700s as a summer palace outside the walls for the princely family of Liechtenstein, with a Hercules Hall frescoed by Andrea Pozzo across the whole ceiling and a sequence of state rooms in high baroque. The family collection housed here and at the city palace is among the largest in private hands anywhere - Rubens on a scale few museums match, including the Decius Mus cycle, along with Van Dyck, Raphael, Rembrandt, Hals and a body of Biedermeier painting and furniture. It was open as a public museum from 1807 to 1938 and again from 2004 to 2011, and it now opens on limited dates and for booked guided tours rather than daily, which is the practical thing to know before travelling for it.

History

Prince Johann Adam Andreas von Liechtenstein bought a plot in the Rossau suburb and commissioned the palace from Domenico Egidio Rossi, its shell finished in 1700, as a mix of town and country house in the Roman manner; Marcantonio Franceschini, Antonio Bellucci, Andrea Pozzo and Johann Michael Rottmayr painted its interiors, and it was completed in the early 1700s. Until 2011 it housed the Liechtenstein Museum, and it was then named the Gartenpalais to set it apart from the family's town palace in the Innere Stadt (Wikipedia, Gartenpalais Liechtenstein).

The main sights

• The Hercules Hall - Pozzo's full-ceiling fresco over the main room.
• The Rubens holdings - including the Decius Mus cycle, at museum scale.
• Baroque state rooms - the summer palace interiors largely intact.
• Biedermeier collections - painting and furniture from the family holdings.

When to go

All year, but only on published opening dates. Two hours.

Things to know

It is not open daily - check the calendar and book, or you will find the gates shut. Most visits are guided. Photography is restricted. The city palace nearby has separate opening.

Nearby

The Liechtenstein City Palace is in the first district; the Servitenviertel is next door.

Key facts