Architecture

Eggenberg Palace is a unique synthesis of the arts dating back to the early Baroque period where architecture and design combine to create a complex symbolist representation of the universe, the cosmos of an educated statesman. The residence of Imperial Governor Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg is political architecture established to express the powerful legitimation of the rule of a family.

Gothic Eggenberg

In 1625 Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg selected the exact same place chosen as the site of the family seat by his great-grandfather, Balthasar Eggenberger, one and a half centuries earlier for the construction of the new residence. Parts of the previous medieval castle were, however, kept and...

Building the house

from princely residence to modern museum

The rise of Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg to become a European statesman under Emperor Ferdinand II necessitated the generous conversion of the old family seat, a rather modest medieval property on the western fringes of Graz, to a princely residence with an appropriately lavish and prestigious...

Programme

utopia of the ideal world

Prince Hans Ulrich and his architect Pietro de Pomis not only designed and constructed Eggenberg Palace as a magnificent and lavish residence for representational purposes, but also as a comprehensive architectural allegory. In its entirety, the palace is a mathematically harmonious cosmos, an...