The 20th and 21st Century

After the First World War, the Herberstein family was forced for economic reasons to sell the house, and it was finally acquired by the state of Styria in January 1939. The Reichsmusikschule (Reich Music School) was housed here until 1945. After suffering war damage and being extensively restored, the building was incorporated into the Landesmuseum Joanneum in 1948 and opened to the public in 1953 as the Baroque Museum.

The house was run from 1972 onwards by the Schloss Eggenberg Department, part of the Joanneum association of museums, and from 2003 it was systematically developed as the central location for the Joanneum’s collections of Old Master paintings. Since the reorganisation of the Alte Galerie (Gallery of Old Masters) on the piano nobile (2005), the reopening of the Münzkabinett (Numismatic collection) (2007) and the recent construction of the Archäologiemuseum (Museum of Archaeology) in the Palace Gardens (2009), the palace complex, with its sumptuous historical interiors and carefully restored gardens, has become one of the highlights of the museum world in Austria.

Since 1 August 2010, Schloss Eggenberg has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, ‘City of Graz – Historic Centre and Schloss Eggenberg’.