The Marble Hall
Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt (architect); Carlo Innocenzo Carlone (fresco) (Hildebrandt 1668 to 1745; Carlone 1686 to 1775) · 1720 to 1723
The doors open on a room two storeys high, faced in red-brown marble and lit by tall windows on both sides. Above you a painted sky opens in the ceiling, where the goddess of fame carries the glory of Prince Eugene of Savoy up into the clouds, surrounded by allegories of his virtues. Gilded stucco frames the windows, and huge chandeliers hang over a floor that has been walked by emperors, generals and, in nineteen fifty five, by the foreign ministers who restored Austria's independence. This is the ceremonial heart of the palace and the only room where the architecture, not the paintings, is the exhibit.
Look at the way Hildebrandt handled the light. The hall sits at the very centre of the building, with windows to the north over the garden and to the south over the entrance court, so that it glows from both sides for most of the day. The fresco was painted by Carlo Innocenzo Carlone, an Italian from Lake Como who worked all over central Europe, and the fictive architecture at its edges is designed to make the real walls seem to rise into the sky. The marble is genuine, from Salzburg, and its warm colour is picked up in the polished floor.
On the fifteenth of May nineteen fifty five the Austrian State Treaty was signed here, ending the ten-year occupation by the Allied powers after the Second World War, and the foreign minister Leopold Figl stepped out onto the balcony to show the crowd the document and announce that Austria was free. A plaque in the floor marks the spot. Walk out to the balcony yourself, if it is open, for the view down the garden to the towers of the old city.
Did You Know? The Austrian State Treaty of nineteen fifty five was signed in this hall, and the foreign minister showed it to the crowd from the balcony with the words Austria is free.
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