Discover Vienna: The Albertina Museum and Palace

Austria

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani May 11, 2015 7:25 pm 708 views

ESCToday in collaboration with Vienna Tourist Board (Wien.info) will be bringing you a series of articles leading up to the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in order to showcase and introduce the 2015 Eurovision host city Vienna to our readers. Today we will have a look at Vienna’s Albertina Museum and Palace.

The Albertina Museum and Palace are located in the heart of Vienna at the edge of the Hofburg Palace and behind Vienna’s State Opera. The museum is among the most visited attractions in the city and if you love modern art, Monet, Picasso etc then you will be in for a treat! The museum and the palace will be a feast for your eyes!

Albertina

The Albertina not only has the largest and most valuable graphical collections in the world, with works such as Dürer’s Hare and Klimt’s studies of women. Its latest exhibition collection presents masterpieces of the modern, spanning Monet to Picasso and Baselitz. As the largest Hapsburg residential palace, the Albertina dominates the southern tip of the Imperial Palace on one of the last remaining fortress walls in Vienna.

Masterpieces in the collections

The collection, which was established in 1776 by Duke Albert of Saxony-Teschen, a son-in-law of Empress Maria Theresa, comprises over one million prints and 60,000 drawings. Famous pieces such as Dürer‘s Hare and his Hands folded in prayer, Rubens‘ studies of children and masterpieces by Schiele, Cézanne, Klimt, Kokoschka, Picasso and Rauschenberg are displayed in the rotating exhibitions

On permanent display in the Albertina‘s new exihibition collection are the most exciting art movements of the last 130 years: from French impressionism to German expressionism to the Russian avant garde and the present. Monet’s Water Lily Pond, Degas’ Dancers and Renoir’s Girl can be gazed at in wonder, as can paintings by Beckmann, Macke, Chagall, Malevich, Rothko, Rainer and Katz. 

In addition, the Albertina has an architecture and photographic collection (incl. Helmut Newton, Lisette Model), whose works are displayed in special shows.

The staterooms

The staterooms of the largest Hapsburg residential palace were once lived in by the favourite daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess Marie-Christine, and later by her adopted son, Archduke Karl, the winner of the Battle of Aspern against Napoleon. The staterooms in shining yellow, green and turquoise, partly furnished with original furniture, transport visitors back to the time of their inhabitants. Both the entire gilding of the carvings with the special alloy Albertina gold and the artistic parquet floors with rose and ebony intarsia are worth a look.

Dining

Guests are pampered with fine dining at Do & Co Albertina. Located immediately next to the Albertina, the Augustinerkeller offers delicacies of Viennese cuisine.

For more information on Vienna you can visit Wien.info and for the latest news on ESC 2015 in Vienna  ORF’s Eurovision website in German.

You can follow our forthcoming series of Discover Vienna articles with photographs and videos on ESCToday.com and on our official Esctoday Instagram and ESCToday Facebook pages.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for the latest news on Vienna, Austria and 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

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