Palais Herberstein

Since May 2011, the Palais Herberstein has been the new home of the Cultural History Collection, at the ‘Museum für Geschichte’. It accommodates not only the permanent exhibition, but also the Collection’s temporary exhibitions. As of April 2017, the new History Museum combines the Cultural History Collection and the Multimedia Collection and presents the history of Styrian society from various perspectives from the high middle ages to the present.

In 1833, Caroline of Naples and Sicily, widow of Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry and heir to the French throne, took up residence on the 2nd floor of the Palais Herberstein, and from October 1835 she occupied the 1st floor as well. She had the rooms facing the street adapted to her needs, and removed the (by then) unfashionable plaster decoration. Around that time, ‘aristocratic casino’ sessions and (from 1850) masked and society balls took place in the state rooms.

Between 1878–1885, the house was leased to the imperial Styrian Jury Court and to the Records Office & Land Registry. The Herberstein family also set up their estates management office here. In 1939/40, the house passed into Styrian government ownership. In 1941, the newly created Neue Galerie was installed in the east part of the 2nd floor, while the west part was used by the Eichler School of Dance until 1963. At that date, the Neue Galerie took over that part as well.