The summer palace in the Rossau district of Vienna was commissioned by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I (1657-1712), one of the greatest builders of his day who also oversaw the construction of castles and palaces from Aussee to Landskron and Prague.
For the planning and construction of his magnificent palace with its extensive gardens, the prince hired renowned architects, painters and stucco plasterers from Austria and abroad.
The first plans for a palace and gardens were presented by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. In 1691 Domenico Egidio Rossi finally started work on the construction of a “palazzo in villa” as a worthy residence for the prince, with a dominant central hall in the style of the Upper Italian villas built during the seicento. In 1692 Domenico Martinelli, the prince's preferred architect, took over Rossi's work-in-progress, adding a new floor to the magnificent building.
The baroque summer palace underwent extensive alterations at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, when Prince Johann Josef I transferred his collections of paintings and sculptures from the City Palace and his Bohemian and Moravian estates to the palace in the Rossau and put them on public display. In order to create more display space windows were bricked up and valuable frescoes painted over.
In 1938, under the shadow of World War II, the Princely Family took up residence in Vaduz and moved all their art treasures to Liechtenstein. Until 2000 the palace served as an annex to the Museum of Modern Art.
In 2004, following extensive restoration work by the Princely Family, the palace was reopened and a large part of the Princely art collection returned.
1090 Wien