Stadtpalais Liechtenstein

Stadtpalais Liechtenstein in Vienna, Austria is a city palace built during the late 17th and early 18th centuries in the High Baroque style under the Habsburg-era court. It served as the majorat house of the Princes of Liechtenstein and is recognized as the first important High Baroque building in Vienna, making it a central aristocratic residence in the city from its completion onward.

Work on the palace began in 1691 and changed ownership while still unfinished. In 1694 Prince Johann Adam I of Liechtenstein acquired the property and oversaw its completion by about 1705. From the outset the palace functioned as a princely urban residence and housed the Liechtenstein picture gallery on the second floor until 1806.

After 1806 the family rented the city palace to members of the imperial family, Archdukes Johann and Ludwig, and transferred the art collection to their garden palace in the Rossau. In later years a foreign diplomatic mission, the Russian legation, occupied parts of the building.

A major interior transformation took place between 1836 and 1847 during the reign of Prince Alois II. The remodelling introduced extensive technical and decorative fittings, at a reported cost of about eleven million gulden, including innovative doors, an elevator, an internal communication system, bentwood flooring supplied by Michael Thonet, rich silk upholstery and heavy Parisian chandeliers. The ballroom received elaborate mechanical fittings that allowed it to be enlarged, and one salon was fitted with a fountain basin and high mirrored walls.

The princely family moved its principal residence to the sovereign Principality of Liechtenstein in 1938 in order to avoid contacts with the Nazi regime. Because Liechtenstein had been recognised as a sovereign state since 1806 and the family’s art collection had been transferred there for safekeeping, the Nazi authorities did not confiscate the collection.

During the Second World War the palace suffered severe damage from an aerial bomb and from an aircraft that fell on the building. Prince Hans‑Adam II inspected the damaged palace in 1953. The structure received provisional repairs in the 1950s and the stair-hall ceiling was rebuilt in the 1970s using period photographs. A comprehensive restoration was carried out from 2009 to 2013 under Vienna-based planning, and the renovated palace was officially reopened on 9 April 2013 by Prince Hans‑Adam II in the presence of Federal President Heinz Fischer. The reconstruction created public showrooms of roughly 1,200 square metres intended mainly for the princely Biedermeier holdings. From May 2013 the palace and its Biedermeier collection became accessible by guided tours, and the building was made available for hire for events; the management stated that it would not operate as a regular museum or adopt the name Liechtenstein‑Museum. The owner reported in January 2013 that the works, costing about €100 million, represented the first sustained conservation of historic fabric and technical installations in many decades.