At the turn of the 18th century, famed military commander Prince Eugene of Savoy purchased a tract of land in Vienna and commissioned Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt to design the Belvedere, a complex of two palaces and gardens. He secured Dominique Girard to plan the formal gardens that unroll from the steps of the upper palace and slowly descend to its lower counterpart. (...)
At the turn of the 18th century, famed military commander Prince Eugene of Savoy purchased a tract of land in Vienna and commissioned Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt to design the Belvedere, a complex of two palaces and gardens. He secured Dominique Girard to plan the formal gardens that unroll from the steps of the upper palace and slowly descend to its lower counterpart. Girard had previously landscaped the grounds at Schlessheim and Nymphenburg for Bavarian ruler Max Emmanuel. Royal visits to the exquisitely manicured lawns of Versailles inspired the spread of French designs and competition for grandeur between European princes. For the Belvedere Gardens, Girard created terraces of parterres (flat planting beds surrounded by shaped hedges) connected by grand staircases and graveled paths. Fountains and water displays pepper the garden, ornamented with marble statuary by sculptor Giovanni Stanetti.
The Upper Belevedere was designed primarily for pomp and display, as reflected in the elegant sala terrena, or ground floor hall, grand staircase, majestic marble hall, and the chapel with an exquisite altarpiece by Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) as well as frescos by Carlo Carlone (1686-1775) and ceiling paintings by Giacomo del Pò (1654-1726). Scenes from the life of Alexander the Great line the grand staircase and are meant to evoke the great military successes of Prince Eugene. The decorative plasterwork of the Upper Belvedere was executed by Santino Bussi (1664–1736), the leading stucco artist of that time.
In 1919 the Belvedere became a museum owned by Austria. Bomb attacks in 1944 and 1945 greatly damaged both the upper and lower palaces, and after the war ended they were carefully restored. However, due to pollution and the inadequate restoration of the WWII damage, the Upper Belvedere’s sala terrena and grand staircase had lost much of their original character.
