City and the Crown: Vienna and the Imperial Court, 1600-1740

10 Making a Baroque Capital

There were already signs of an impending construction boom during the 1690s, though many of the more ambitious building projects were not completed until the third and fourth decades of the next century. Unsurprisingly, the wave of new construction began with the highest court nobility . Only later did the bourgeoisie and some of the mid-level bureaucrats begin investing in new and larger houses, mainly after 1697, when a brief interlude of peace provided the optimism and financial resources necessary to build on cheaper land in the suburbs. Just a decade after the siege, the records of quarterfreedom grants, which are possibly the best remaining evidence about the state of the Viennese construction industry, begin to reflect a trend toward the expansion of noble palaces both in the city and beyond the walls. Court resolutions before 1693 show only isolated examples of quarter exemptions for building new noble houses, and of those few, the most significant were transfers of free years from houses demolished to make way for the fortifications to other properties in the suburbs farther away from the walls.! Then in 1693, there were several grants indicating substantial expansion of aristocratic residences. Count Jarger's wife inherited from her brother, Prince Losenstein, a house in the Teinfaltgasse. At Jarger's request, 185 Chapter 10 Leopold I granted quarter freedom to the renovated residence for jarger and his wife's lifetimes, a privilege extended to perpetual freedom in 1697 in recognition of the count's long and distinguished service to the crown.2 Also in 1693, Court Chancellor Theodor Altet von Strattmann bought two free houses: one belonging to the widoW,ed Countess Sinzendorff; the other, to Count Althan. He then purchased three small bourgeois houses between them so he could raze' them all and build a single structure on the consolidated parcel of land. Leopold granted him perpetual freedom over the entire complex, which meant a loss of at least three court quarters in the bourgeois houses.3 Outside the walls, Prince Liechtenstein's summer palace in the Rossau was constructed between 1691 and 1711. Between 1697 and 1715, Count Heinrich Mannsfeld, Prince von Fondi" built a summer palace between the Heugasse (now Prinz-EugenStrasse ) and the Rennweg. In 1716 the Schwarzenbergs purchased it and added to it. These large establishments were obviously flattering imitations of the Bou/ust, the urge to build on a magnificent scale, displayed by Leopold I and both of his sons who succeeded him, joseph I (1705-11) and Charles VI (171140 ). It was an indulgence available only to the richest magnate nobles, who also tended to be among the most important political figures in the empire. Two of the most splendid baroque palaces were built by Prince Eugene of Savoy. By 1694 his military victories had made him rich enough to purchase a large house in the Himmelpfortgasse and engage the architect johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach to draw plans for its reconstruction. In the years that followed , Eugene bought several adjacent properties so he could expand the palace.4 Construction of the new palace on these properties began in 1697. Before it did, however, Prince Eugene had to get the city's agreement to the design, for the architect planned a facade with' grandiose sculptures that would hang out over the street. Examination by the city's inspectors proved that the sculptures would not impede traffic or narrow the roadway, so work commenced. The builders' estimates indicated a total cost of 54,467 Gulden to realize the architect's plan, just under half 186 Making a Baroque Capital the sum (26,089 Gulden) going to the master mason to produce the structure itself.5 To see this in perspective, the cost of this one palace, including its land, came to more than the city realized from all the buildings it acquired in the Jewish quarter in 1670. In 1702 the palace was finished. In 1698 Leopold had granted Eugene twenty-five quarter-free years on the palace in recognition of the 50,000 to 60,000 Gulden the building would presumably cost by the time it was finally completed.6 In 1704, finding he had no other adequate marks of esteem to offer Eugene after the spectacular victory at Blenheim, Leopold decreed the palace to be a perpetually privileged noble free house, forever exempt from taxes, quartering, and all other civic burdens .7 The crown later purchased it from...