Sunday Matinees at the Liechtenstein Museum

Art, Music and Fine Food

Enjoy art and culture with class at the Palais Liechtenstein.

A fine composition of art, culture and fine food expects you every Sunday at the Liechtenstein Museum. The Hercules Hall, as one of the most profane baroque venues Vienna's, is the ideal setting for the variety of the Sunday matinees. Selected orchestras, like the Concilium musicum Wien and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, present works from Händel to Mozart, Purcell, Haydn, Bach, Schubert and Beethoven.

Wander before or after the matinee through the marvellous rooms, admire the staircase with the wonderful frescos of Johann Michael Rottmayr. The library as a window to the world of art invites for a stay. An invitation to admire a selection of masterpieces of European art from the early Renaissance to the Baroque. Paintings by Raphael, Giulio Romano, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthonis van Dyck and Frans Hals as well as sculptures by Mantegna, Giambologna, Adrian de Fries and Alessandro Algardi.

Palais Liechtenstein

The Garden Palace in Vienna’s Rossau district was constructed during the reign of Prince Johann Adam Andreas I of Liechtenstein (1657-1712), who was one of the greatest builders of his day. He also oversaw the construction of castles and palaces in Feldsberg (Valtice), Eisgrub (Lednice), Aussee, Sternberg, Landskron, Prague, Plumenau (Plumlov), Butschowitz (Bucovice) and Kolodej. For the most part, Prince Johann Adam Andreas I employed a new generation of Italian architects for his building activities.

The building’s history began in 1687 with the purchase of an extensive parcel of land in Rossau. The Prince’s intentions were obvious from the very beginning, the acquisition including not only land for the residence itself, but also an area for an overall urban concept. The area came to be known as Liechtenthal, and is one of Austria’s rare extant examples of expansive urban planning during the baroque era.

In 1690, the prince assigned the planning of the Garden Palace itself to the Bologna-educated architect Domenico Egidio Rossi (1659-1715), who proposed a palazzo in villa as a dignified residence for the prince on the outskirts of the imperial city. Construction began according to this plan in 1691. In keeping with the building’s inner structure, the central hall dominated the palace’s outward appearance. The subordinate wings on each side were each fronted by a staircase - a clear reference to the style of many north Italian villas built during the seicento.

Rossi’s work-in-progress was taken over in 1692 by Domenico Martinelli (1650- 1718), who had taught at the famous Accademia di San Lucca in Rome until being called to Vienna. Martinelli was the prince’s preferred architect after 1690.

In order to achieve a palace-type structure, Rossi’s design for the wings was raised by one floor, leaving the building with a considerably more imposing appearance than the original concept. The new three-storey design also fulfilled the requirements that the prince’s father, Karl Eusebius (1611-1684), had set for a princely country palace in his treatise on architecture.

Inside the palace, there was an elaborate arrangement of rooms. A vestibule was followed by two large staircases with red marble steps leading to the Great Hall and the gallery behind. In this, Martinelli adhered to the tradition of inner- city palace architecture; this was highly unusual for a suburban palace.

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