The Belvedere is a historic building complex and art museum in Vienna, Austria. The complex consists of two Baroque palaces, the Upper and Lower Belvedere, together with the Orangery, the Palace Stables, and a formal Baroque garden. It is located in the city's third district, Landstraße, on the south-eastern edge of Vienna's historic centre. Built as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the complex was designed principally by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and completed in the early eighteenth century.

Today the Belvedere is one of Austria's major art museums. The museum institution presents Austrian art from the Middle Ages to the present in an international context, with the Upper Belvedere housing the permanent collection, the Lower Belvedere used for special exhibitions, and Belvedere 21 devoted to contemporary Austrian and international art, film, and music. The Belvedere Palace and garden ensemble forms part of the Baroque heritage of the Historic Centre of Vienna, a World Heritage Site.

The Belvedere was built during a period of extensive construction in Vienna, which was then the imperial capital and residence city of the Habsburg monarchy. This period of prosperity followed Prince Eugene's successful military campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. The main garden extends between the Lower and Upper Belvedere over three large terraces. Its design includes symmetrical parterres, water basins, steps, cascades, clipped hedges, and sculptures. A great water basin in the upper parterre and the stairs and cascades connecting the upper and lower parts of the garden survive, although the original patterned bedding was later replaced in part by lawns.

Upper Belvedere

thumb|upright=1.35|Upper Belvedere, April 2018

Construction of the Upper Belvedere began in the late 1710s and was completed in 1723. The palace was conceived less as a private residence than as a representative building for ceremonies, receptions, and display. Prince Eugene was able to receive the Turkish ambassador Ibrahim Pasha there in 1719, while decoration of the interior was still under way.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, the outbreak of World War I, and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918 marked the beginning of a new period for the Belvedere.

Belvedere in the First and Second Republic

thumb|upright=1.35|Ceiling painting of the Marble Hall in the Upper Belvedere, by [[Carlo Innocenzo Carlone]]

After the end of World War I, the art historian Franz Haberditzl asked the Ministry of Education to assign the Belvedere palaces to the Staatsgalerie. This request was granted in 1919. The reorganisation of the former imperial collections, prepared by Hans Tietze in 1920–21, included plans for an Österreichische Galerie and a Moderne Galerie. During the reorganisation of 1921–23, the Baroque Museum was added in the Lower Belvedere. The Moderne Galerie opened in the Orangery in 1929.

In 1996 the World Monuments Fund added the Belvedere gardens to its Watch List, citing the need for restoration of the historic garden ensemble and parts of the architectural fabric.

The museum describes its collection as spanning Austrian art from the Middle Ages to the present in a global context.

The permanent presentation at the Upper Belvedere is titled Picture this! The Belvedere Collection from Cranach to Lassnig and presents around eight hundred years of art history from the Middle Ages to the 1970s.

The Belvedere also maintains research, conservation, collection, communication, digital, and outreach programmes. The museum describes its central tasks as exhibiting, researching, collecting, communicating, and preserving.

The 2026 programme includes tours with art educator Francesca Liva and art historian Kero Fichter addressing, among other topics, Isabella of Parma and her correspondence with Archduchess Maria Christina, and Curt Stenvert's Lesbia contra Motor in relation to female same-sex sexuality and visualisations outside sexual norms.

Provenance research and restitution

The Belvedere conducts provenance research into works created before 1945 and acquired since 1933, in accordance with Austria's 1998 Art Restitution Act. The museum states that this research concerns roughly 5,400 paintings, sculptures, and graphic works. Since 1999 dossiers prepared by the Belvedere have been submitted to Austria's Commission for Provenance Research and to the Art Restitution Advisory Board, which issues recommendations on restitution.

Several restitution cases have involved works held by, formerly held by, or historically associated with the Belvedere:

  • In 2006, Austria returned five paintings by Gustav Klimt from the Belvedere to the heirs of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer, including Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
  • In November 2006, after a long-running dispute, Edvard Munch's Summer Night at the Beach, then in the Belvedere Gallery, was returned to Marina Fistoulari-Mahler, granddaughter and heir of Alma Mahler.
  • Also in 2006, the Austrian arbitration panel decided that Gustav Klimt's unfinished Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl should remain in the Belvedere. The decision attracted criticism because Amalie Zuckerkandl and her daughter were murdered in the Holocaust and because of unresolved questions concerning the painting's ownership history.
  • In 2012 the documentary Portrait of Wally drew renewed attention to Egon Schiele's Portrait of Wally, which had belonged to the Viennese art dealer Lea Bondi before being seized by the Nazi art dealer Friedrich Welz. After World War II the painting was mistakenly returned to the Belvedere as part of another dealer's collection before later passing to Rudolf Leopold.
  • In 2014, the Belvedere was required to restitute Wilhelm Leibl's Farmer's Kitchen / Kitchen Interior to the heirs of Martha Liebermann, widow of Max Liebermann, because of Nazi persecution.
  • In 2020, Austria's Art Restitution Advisory Board recommended the restitution of Egon Schiele's Four Trees / Autumn Allée to the heirs of Josef Morgenstern. Holocaust survivor Alice Morgenstern had filed a claim in 1959 stating that the work had belonged to her family and had not been sold voluntarily.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="90">

File:Belvedere, Vienna.jpg|Upper Belvedere

File:Schloss Belvedere Wien 2007 Portal.jpg|Gates of Belvedere

File:Upper Belvedere Entrance, 2015.jpg|Upper Belvedere entrance

File:Vienna - Belvedere Palace - 6957.jpg|Upper Belvedere interior

File:Schloss Belvedere in Wien.jpg|Upper Belvedere, garden side

File:Belvedere Gärten und Blick nach Wien. Vista de Viena desde los jardines del Belvedere.JPG|Belvedere Gardens

File:Sphinx sculptures, Belvedere Gardens, Vienna.JPG|Sphinx sculptures, Belvedere Gardens

File:Wien Belvedere Schlosspark 4.JPG|Belvedere Gardens

File:Wien Belvedere Unteres 5.JPG|Lower Belvedere

File:Palacio Belvedere, Viena, Austria, 2020-02-01, DD 83-85 HDR.jpg|View of Lower Belvedere from the top

File:Orangery - Lower Belvedere.jpg|Lower Belvedere Orangery

File:Schloss Belvedere Sept 2020 1.jpg|Aerial view

File:Visitors in front of Austrian Gallery Belvedere.jpg|Visitors in front of the Belvedere, 2025

</gallery>

See also

  • List of Baroque residences
  • Belvedere 21
  • Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
  • Historic Centre of Vienna

References

Further reading

  • Belvedere at Google Arts & Culture