Austrian architecture

The Age of Ancient Rome

Countdown of European architectural samples of Austria should be carried out from the architectural structures of Ancient Rome . It is known that the Romans, during the life of Emperor Octavian Augustus, captured most of the lands of modern Austria and built several fortresses here for Roman garrisons. Among them:

• Windobona (now Vienna )
• Lentsia (now Salzburg )
• Virunum (now Klagenfurt )
• Karnuntum (now Petronell-Karnuntum ).

The initial building was typical, quadrangular with a forum in the center. The building materials were local stone and brick. In addition to the usual buildings, pagan temples, circuses, baths (therms), theaters were erected, and the fortresses had gates. Vienna has the ruins of a Roman aqueduct .

At the end of V century. n e. Roman garrisons left these lands, which passed to the barbarian tribes of the Germans and Slavs .

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  Building layout of a Roman military camp

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  Carnuntum, reconstruction of an ancient Roman villa.

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  The ruins of the Roman baths, Petronelli

Early Middle Ages

Around 803 AD e. Charlemagne defeated the Avar warriors and created the Eastern mark (duchy) on this territory. A tangible wave of Christianization of its inhabitants and the construction of primitive Christian churches, simplified by plans and architectural forms, began.

The buildings of the early Middle Ages were created mainly from wood, so they were not preserved. Stone were Christian churches. The lands of Austria were colonized by Germanic tribes , mainly Bavars , so the culture developed in the overwhelming style of South German art. But significant trade ties with Lombardy caused the increasing influence of art in northern Italy. The Slavic component also made a small contribution. The development was the first significant European style - Romanesque. Among the significant structures of the Romanesque era:

• parts of St. Stephen's Cathedral (western facade), Vienna
• Cathedral in the city of Gurk
• monastery church, Zekkau
• bunk tombstones (the so-called Carners , Styria, Carinthia, Lower Austria).

Austrian Christian warriors participated in crusades. The money accumulated from military robberies or trade went to the construction of fortresses, temples, monasteries, castles.

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  Roman castle of Rabenstein, 11th century, ruins

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  Church on the top of Magdalensberg, Carinthia

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  Chapel Vindegg Tyrol

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  Catedral, Linz, stained glass window

Austrian Gothic

The transition to Gothic occurred only around the 13th century. Gothic architecture and Gothic stylistics had a noticeable development for 200-250 years and became leading in the local culture. They were supported by rulers - Babenbergs, and since 1282 - the Habsburgs. New territories are gradually added and added to the possessions. Austria becomes a famous part of the so-called Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. Among the most significant examples of Austrian Gothic:

• St. Maria am Gestad Church, Vienna
• Gothic south tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral
• church choirs or Gothic chapels (Graz, Klosterneyburg, Tsvetl, Schwaz, etc.). The farther from Vienna, the more simple forms of gothic use.

Wall paintings (St. Gregory, Nonberg Monastery, Salzburg, bloc 1150) are used to a limited extent, sculptures, paintings (“Escape of the Holy Family to Egypt”, before 1475 ). The most significant examples of the Gothic style are wooden carved altars (altar of St. Wolfgang, St. Wolfgang am Abersee, 1471 - 1481 ), where elements of Gothic architecture were actively used.

In the XX century. the government initiated the creation of the Austrian Gothic Museum in the Belvedere Palace.

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  Kirche, Altar, Magdalensberg

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  Graz, Cathedral

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  Tsvetl Abbey, Gothic monastery courtyard

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  South Tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral

Destroyed Castles of Austria

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  Emmerberg Castle

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  Altschileiten Castle

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  Hinterhouse

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  Kolmits

Brief Austrian Renaissance

The Renaissance in Austria came at a difficult time of the counter-reformation and wars with Turkey, and came with a considerable delay. Church architecture lost its leading importance and was captured by outdated and simplified Gothic forms. The breath of revival ideas is more tangible in painting and arts and crafts. In the XVI century. the threat of the Turkish capture of Austria prompted not only the construction of churches and palaces (the main areas of Renaissance architecture), but rather the renewal of the fortresses. There was practically no city that at that time in Austria went beyond the borders of the old (still medieval) fortress walls, and the urban development remained cramped and had a medieval character. But sometimes there were examples of creating ceremonial courtyards in castles with open colonnades like the Italian ones. There were cases of inviting masters from Italy to build new castles and gardens of the Italian type (Hohensalzburg, Ambras, Schallaburg).

The period of mannerism was practically not reflected in the architecture of Austria, despite the fact that the Austrian court was one of the significant centers of mannerism in Western Europe. Imperial orders are carried out by famous masters - mannerists, almost all of foreign origin, but almost none of them was an architect.

• Bartolomeus Spranger , an artist from Flanders
• Arcimboldo , artist from Milan
• Adrian de Vries , sculptor
• Hans von Aachen , artist from Cologne
• Egidius Zadeler , an engraver from Flanders

The architecture of Austria of the 16th century seems to build up strength for a powerful deployment and prosperity in the Baroque era, which has become a vivid fact of the art of both Austria itself and the culture of Western Europe.

Baroque Austria

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  Durnstein city from the south

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  Graz, Mausoleum of Ferdinand II, 1614-1638

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  Lower Belvedere Palace, Baroque Museum, Vienna

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  Upper Belvedere Lobby

In the XVII century, Austria as a state experienced a short period of recovery. It was associated with both positive and negative factors. Positive were victories over Turkey and the liberation of European territories from a foreign, non-European culture. For Turkey (and its culture) was then not perceived as part of Europe. Negative was the annexation of new territories to Austria and the formation of the Austrian Empire . Even before that, it was a conglomerate of different cultural and historical areas. Now the number of areas has increased. This process will last until the end of the 18th century. It began with the annexation of Hungary by violence from 1686 and ended with the annexation of northern Italy, which provoked the National Liberation War, first in Hungary at the beginning of the 18th century, and in the 19th century in Italy.

The victory was won by the secular and ecclesiastical authorities of Austria. It was these powerful and wealthy circles that became the customers and the main consumers of the achievements of the Baroque era. For strategic reasons, in 1683 , the Austrians burned all the outskirts of Vienna so that nothing would go to the Turkish soldiers. Around the year 1690, the construction boom began - luxurious country estates, baroque monasteries, baroque churches in different cities appear on the burned territory.

Baroque construction began long before the 1690s. One of the first examples - the baroque cathedral in the city of Salzburg - appeared in 1611 - 1628 . Even then, the projects and work of Italian architects were widely appreciated, because the baroque of Austria developed under the powerful influence of the baroque of Italy. So, the cathedral in Salzburg was built by the Italian Santino Solari . And in Prague, captured and conquered by Austria, on the instructions of the victorious Austrians, a whole army of architects, decorators and artists of Italy already worked (from architect Caratti to gardener Sebregondi).

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  Early Baroque. Church of St. John the Baptist in Trnava, Slovakia

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  Schonbrunn Palace on an old engraving

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  Monastery in Melk

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  Grashalkovich Palace in Bratislava (now the residence of the President of Slovakia ).

The student period ended after about 70 years. Austrian baroque begins to really compete with the homeland of baroque - Italy. Schönbrunn Palace is already being built by the Austrians Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and his son Joseph Emmanuel. At the same time, Schönbrunn is not like any of the palaces of Italy. In Vienna itself they build: the palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy (Belvedere), the Bohemian Chancery , the Court Library, the Church of St. Charles Borromei (Karlskirche), the palaces of aristocrats. The Austrian province is proud of this masterpiece - a baroque monastery in the town of Melk (architect J. Prandtauer, I. Mungenast).

Not all architects in Austria had enough orders. They go to work (Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Hildebrandt, Pilgram). So the masterpieces of Austrian baroque are distributed, and they can be found both in Austria itself and in once occupied countries (baroque palaces of Prague (Czech Republic), the palace of the Duke of Esztergazi in Ferthed (Hungary), the Grashalkovich palace in Gödöll in Hungary, the baroque monastery-masterpiece in Jasov and a number of baroque cathedrals in various cities of Slovakia, etc.).

The church in the town of Tsvetl became one of the best achievements of Austrian Baroque in sacred architecture. Here is the monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin, known since Gothic times. At the beginning of the XVIII century the leadership of the monastery decided to renew the facade of the monastery church, attracting talented architects (they were M. Steinl and I. Mungenast). The new wavy facade successfully combined baroque forms with the Gothic desire for high-altitude, which was inherited by the only central tower. Lumps of stone were trimmed separately, giving them individual forms of a pattern brick . So the stones were trimmed only during the Gothic period. But in the facade of Steinl and Mungenast, the old, gothic in nature signs, stone processing technology is connected with baroque forms and baroque sculptures. A baroque tower with a figured roof rises above the surroundings, like the usual spiers of Gothic churches in Austria, serving as a familiar spatial landmark in the landscape.

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  Gothic window of the church in Tsvetla

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  Baroque window of the church in Tsvetla

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  Baroque facade of the gothic church in Tsvetla

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  Archangel Michael in a duel with the Devil

Among the best examples of civil, non-church architecture is the Baroque ensemble Schloss Hof , created by order of the commander Eugene of Savoy.

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  Plan of the ensemble of the castle and baroque garden Schloss Hof

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  Schloss Hof Castle, ground (garden)

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  Park facade of the castle

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  Pool

Classicism

In a country with developed traditions of Gothic and Baroque classicism was not widespread. And its forms and architectural solutions had significant Baroque impurities in sculpture, decor, and spatial planning. Austrian classicism did not have significant achievements and gave way to the rapid development of eclecticism in the 19th century.

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  Maltese Church, facade, Vienna

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  Coburg Palace, Vienna

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  Vienna General Hospital and University Hospital, 1784

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  Palffy Palace, Vienna

19th Century Eclecticism and Modern

Architecture of Austria in the 19th century developed in a difficult political situation. Its bureaucratic settlement was preserved, and the war with Napoleonic France at the beginning of the century led to the absence of large castles.

Only since the 1850s. the situation has improved. This was influenced by turbulent capitalist relations in the economy. Cities receive conditions for development thanks to the order of the authorities to destroy the ancient walls and the right to build green zones around them. Even the growing idea of ​​the importance of historical fortresses did not stop the destruction of the walls of Vienna, where they create a circular highway (Ringstrasse), and on the destroyed outer ramparts of Vienna - the second circle of boulevards (Gürtel). The capital of the Austrian Empire is built up with multi-storey and multi-apartment apartment buildings. A better-off layer of the population is building separate mansions - compact, simplified, sometimes decorated with corner towers, half-timbered parts, open galleries. Biedermeier style was developed. Ordinary buildings - orderly, but casual, slurred, almost boring, in stark contrast to the monuments of Gothic, Baroque, even with buildings of historical styles.

Imperial power is finally turning to the construction of large state-owned facilities. The pathos of bourgeois architecture is fantastically connected with imperial ambitions and the appeal to bright historical styles - neo-Gothic, neo-Renaissance, neo-baroque, neo-Greek reign. Among the large buildings of Vienna of this time are the Opera House (architect Zikkard von Zikkardsbugr, 1861-1869), the new Parliament building (architect T. Hansen), the Votivkirche church (architect G. Ferstel, 1883), the new Town Hall (architect F Schmidt, 1895), two grandiose buildings of the imperial museums and the Burgtheater (architect G. Semper and K. Hazenauer).

At the end of the XIX century. a new architectural style arises - the Vienna Secession .

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  University of Vienna Library, Reading Room

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  The main building of the University of Vienna.

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  Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

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  Austrian Parliament Building

Fachwerk in Austria

Vienna Secession

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  Corner Facade Balconies

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  Church of Carl Borromeo

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  Kirche Steinhof, interior

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  Building on Brandstrasse

XX century

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  Museum of Modern Art, Museum Quarter of Vienna.

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  Graz, Steyermarkt

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  Graz, fresco of the land archive

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  University of Vienna. Faculty of Law

• Hielscher K., Gube R. Österreich. Landschaft und Baukunst , Berlin, 1928.
• Riehl H. Barocke Baukunst in Österreich , München, 1930.
• Sedlmayer H., Österreichische Barockarchitektur 1690-1740 , Wien, 1930.
• Brief Art Encyclopedia. The art of countries and peoples of the world, T. 1. M., 1962.

• Vienna Secession
• Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach
• Hildebrandt, Johann Lucas von
• Franz Anton Pilgram
• Gottfried Semper