Headquarter of the ÖAW

Around the middle of the 18th century, as a result of the Austrian university reform, the University of Vienna needed a new building. It was designed by the court architect Jean Nicolas Jadot, whose ideas were greatly influenced by French and Italian early classicism. The building was completed in 1755, only two years after construction had begun, and it thereafter served as the main building of the University of Vienna for hundred years. Thus, it was also the scenery for the students revolts of 1848. In 1857 it became the seat of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which had been founded ten years before. Today, administration offices, the library and archives of the Austrian Academy of Sciences as well as the Computer Centre (ARZ) are located in the main building. In the festive hall, the conference room or club room and the "Alte Aula" events are taking place on a regular basis. Of the many depictions of the building, special mention should be made of the painting by Bernardo Belotto, also known as Canaletto, entitled "The University Square in Vienna" (1758-1761), which can be seen in Vienna's "Kunsthistorische Museum".

The festive hall on the first floor, impressive by its abundance of ornamentation, is the focal point of the whole building. The marble stucco on the walls gradually merges with the ceiling fresco by the Italian painter Gregorio Guglielmi (1755). This painting, created in the style of the late Baroque, depicts the disciplines studied at the university as allegorical representations of its four faculties. Profiles of the Empress Maria Theresia and the Emperor Franz Stephan, the patrons of these disciplines, are placed at the centre of the painting. In the years 1807 to 1840 concerts were held in the festive hall, at which leading musicians such as Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert performed. A significant event in the Viennese history of music was the performance of Haydn's "Creation" on March 27, 1808, on the occasion of the composer's 76th birthday. The conductor was Antonio Salieri, the director of music at the Imperial Court.

Of particular importance to art history is the "Johannessaal", so called after the ceiling fresco by Franz Anton Maulpertsch (around 1766/67), depicting the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist.

 

Folder [PDF]