Eggenberg Palace (German: Schloss Eggenberg) in Graz is the most important Baroque palace complex in the Austrian state of Styria. Its preserved features, large, beautiful gardens, and special collections from the Universalmuseum Joanneum, which are located in the palace and surrounding park, make Schloss Eggenberg one of Austria’s most valuable cultural treasures. The palace is located at an elevation of 381 meters on the western edge of the city. Its architecture and the visible marks of centuries of history show the changes and support provided by the once-powerful House of Eggenberg, the most influential family in Styria.

In 2010, the importance of Schloss Eggenberg was recognized when the Graz Historic Old Town was expanded to include the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites list.

The palace is surrounded by walls and has a large entrance facing west. It is located in the Eggenberg district of Graz and can be reached by tram. The northern corner of the palace grounds includes the Planetary Garden, a building that displays Roman stone artifacts, and the entrance to the new Archaeology Museum, which houses the Cult Wagon of Strettweg. At ground level, the palace contains a numismatic collection (Coin Cabinet) in the former rooms of Balthasar Eggenberger, who owned the imperial minting license and operations during the Late Middle Ages. On the upper level, the Alte Galerie displays many paintings, sculptures, and other artworks from the medieval era through the early modern period, covering five centuries of European art history.

History

Schloss Eggenberg appears to be a new building from the 17th century. However, many parts of the structure are much older, dating back to the Late Middle Ages, and construction continued through the early modern period.

Before 1460, Balthasar Eggenberger, a financier to Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, purchased land in western Graz. This land became the family’s permanent noble home. Over the next few years, the family built and expanded their residence. By 1470, a square Gothic chapel had been added to the tower. A Papal indulgence from May 30, 1470, referred to the "Chapel of the Virgin Mary in Eggenberg Castle," which later became the foundation for the new palace built by Balthasar’s great-grandson, Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg.

Hans Ulrich, a skilled diplomat and statesman, guided the foreign policy of Emperor Ferdinand II. At the same time, Cardinal Richelieu of France shaped the foreign policy of King Louis XIII during the Thirty Years’ War. As a close advisor to Ferdinand II, Hans Ulrich wanted a grand residence to reflect his new status and authority. After Ferdinand II chose Vienna as his imperial capital, Hans Ulrich was named "Governor" of Inner Austria. In 1625, he hired architect Giovanni Pietro de Pomis to design his new palace, inspired by El Escorial in Spain. De Pomis, who was also a painter and medal designer, oversaw the construction until his death in 1631. Work continued under Laurenz van de Syppe and was completed by de Pomis’s assistants, Pietro Valnegro and Antonio Pozzo. The palace’s outer structure was finished by 1635 or 1636, and interior decoration was completed between 1641 and 1646.

In 1666, Johann Seyfried von Eggenberg, Hans Ulrich’s grandson, began transforming the palace to match the grandeur of the Baroque style. In 1673, the palace gained attention when Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Tyrol visited for her wedding to Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. Under Johann Seyfried, artists completed a cycle of about 600 ceiling paintings in the main rooms. Hans Adam Weissenkircher, the court painter, finished the famous Planetary Room’s paintings in 1684–1685, marking the end of the first major decoration phase.

After the Eggenberg family line ended, the palace fell into disrepair. Johann Leopold Count Herberstein, the last Eggenberg princess’s husband, ordered renovations. Between 1754 and 1762, the building and garden were decorated in the Rococo style. The main floor was updated, but the Planetary Room and ceiling paintings remained unchanged. New wall coverings, furniture, and East Asian cabinets were added. The palace theater was demolished, and a baroque church was built in its place. Joseph Hueber, a student of Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, supervised these changes.

In the 19th century, renovations focused on the first floor, while the main floor remained untouched for a century. The Baroque garden was transformed into a romantic landscape garden inspired by English designs.

The Herberstein family owned the palace until 1939, when the state of Styria acquired it. The Joanneum, Austria’s oldest museum, took over management in 1953 after restoring damage from World War II and the Allied occupation.

Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg designed the palace to reflect humanist ideas about the cosmos, including astronomy, astrology, and alchemy. The palace’s design is based on the Gregorian calendar. It has 365 windows, one for each day of the year. The 24 rooms on the main floor represent the weeks of the year, and the second floor’s 24 rooms symbolize the hours of a day. Each floor has 31 rooms, matching the maximum days in a month. The 52 windows on the main floor and 8 windows in the Planetary Room total 60, representing seconds in a minute and minutes in an hour.

The palace is built on a rectangular plan, with the central tower and Gothic chapel forming its geometric center. Four corner towers represent the four seasons and face the cardinal directions. The 24 main rooms form a ring, ending and beginning with the Planetary Room. This hall’s paintings by Hans Adam Weissenkircher depict the four elements, the 12 Western zodiac signs, and the seven classical planets. These artworks connect the palace’s design to the idea of a "Golden Age" ruled by the Eggenberg family.

The 600 ceiling paintings in the main rooms show scenes from Greek and Roman mythology, the Old Testament, and European legends. These were added during the 17th-century decoration phase.

During the 18th century, the main floor was renovated in the Rococo style. New furniture, chandeliers, and stoves were added, and most rooms received monochrome silk damask wall coverings.

Gardens

The different owners and builders of the palace and its surrounding gardens have always viewed them as connected parts. Each new generation made major changes to the gardens over time.

The biggest expansion of the garden happened after the house was completed. In the last part of the 17th century, the garden was greatly expanded around the building. It followed the design of the Italian garden, which was divided into sections with parterres, bosquet areas, fountains, aviaries, and pheasant gardens.

Johann Leopold Count Herberstein changed the garden’s layout to match a French garden style. By the 1770s, the Eggenberg Gardens were open to the public in Graz.

However, during the Enlightenment and under Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, people began to think that Baroque gardens were unattractive because they seemed too strict and unnatural. Jérôme Count Herberstein, who loved gardens, agreed and in 1802 changed the Eggenberg Schloss Park into an English-style garden. Straight paths, fountains, and formal patterns were replaced with winding paths and natural-looking landscapes inspired by the paintings of Claude Lorraine. The Rose Mound, which was recently restored, became the highlight of this 19th-century English garden.

In the early 20th century, interest in the palace gardens declined, and the Eggenberg Schloss Park no longer had a gardener. This led to parts of the garden being removed and the rest becoming overgrown, turning it into a simple city park.

In 1993, with help from the Austrian Federal Bureau of Cultural Heritage Management, a project began to restore the gardens as a cultural monument to Romanticism. Existing parts were preserved and protected, and missing parts were rebuilt when possible. Early work included restoring the 1848 Breakfast Garden behind the palace and the Rose Mound, which was restored during the winter of 2007/08.

Peacocks from the old Graz Peacock Garden, once between the city and the park, now live in the Eggenberg Schloss Park. Both white and Indian blue peacocks are present. During mating season, the males’ loud calls and bright feathers add an exotic look to the park as they try to attract females.

In the north corner of the grounds, a separate garden changed many times over the palace’s history. Eventually, only its layout remained clear.

Because no records survived, a new design for the flower garden was created in 2000. Landscape architect Helga Tornquist used ideas from the original Eggenberg garden plan and included a modern design based on ancient planetary "signatures," which are important to the iconography of Schloss Eggenberg. The Lapidarium, built over the ruins of the former orangery, now houses the Roman Stonework Collection of the Joanneum.

In 2009, a new underground showroom was added next to the Lapidarium to display the Joanneum’s Pre- and Early History archaeological collections. It opened in time for the Joanneum’s bicentennial celebration in 2011.

Commemorative silver euro coin

In 2002, the Austrian Mint recognized the importance of Schloss Eggenberg by featuring it as the main image on one of its popular silver euro commemorative coins: the 10 euro Eggenberg Palace commemorative coin. The back of the coin shows a picture of Johannes Kepler, a friend of Eggenberg who taught at a former Protestant school in Graz. His first important work, Mysterium Cosmographicum, which describes the Copernican system, was written while he lived in Graz. This work may have influenced the symbols used in the design of the palace.