Vienna: Prunksaal @ the Natl Library

“The National Library’s Prunksaal [State Hall] is a ‘library room’ in the same way that the Mona Lisa is a ‘painting’.”

It was those words that put the Austrian National Library on our sightseeing list … a last minute addition to our day.

Leaving the Kunsthistorisches Museum shortly after 3:30p, we hurried over to the library, which is housed in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg … an easy 15-minute walk from the KHM,

With 12,000,000+ items in its inventory, this library is the largest in Austria. It was founded in 1368 as the Hofbibliothek [Court Library] when Albert III, Archduke of Australia, moved his collection of books from Viennese vaults into a library. In the centuries that followed, the imperial members of the court added to the collection.

It wasn’t until 1722, however, that Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, commissioned a permanent home for the library in the Hofburg Palace. The result? Reading rooms that are considered to be “the jewel of Baroque secular architecture.” It took approximately three years for the building to be completed. But it was another four years before the frescoes and other decor elements were completed and the Court Library moved into its new home.

In 1920, after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the declaration of the Republic of Austria, the Court Library became the National Library. But that did not take away from the jaw-droppingly lavish Prunksaal that we visited today.

Sure, we’d seen photos of the library before our visit. Nonetheless, stepping through the door of the State Hall, I couldn’t help but gasp at what my eyes beheld — stacks and stacks of walnut bookcases crammed with leather-bound books; giant mobile ladders everywhere to ensure access to the books on the higher shelves … walnut balconies with gilded decorations providing access to even higher shelves; marble columns with gilded Corinthian-style capitals; marble statues of the earlier Habsburgs … with Emperor Charles VI in his rightful place in the center of the rotunda (though, in our case, the statue was surrounded with panels promoting the current temporary exhibit); frescoes in every direction … including the gigantic one painted in the cupola.

The cupola fresco — the work of the Imperial Court artist, Daniel Gran — depicts the glorification — deification, if you will — of Emperor Charles VI. It is filled with allegorical symbols of the virtues of his rule, the construction of the library, and the use of sciences and arts by the state. There are also allegorical symbols of war and peace, strength and wisdom, earthly and heavenly spheres. A nearby digital panel helped us to identify the symbols and scenes that constantly drew our eye up.

My one regret? The stairs leading to the balconies were closed. It would have been amazing to see the Prunksaal from a higher vantage point.

(If interested, you can click this link (https://tinyurl.com/bdvub56p) to scroll through a Google gigapixel image for close-ups and explanations … and even see the crack in the dome that dates back to the 18th century. No worries; repairs were done back then and the dome is not in danger of collapsing.) Czytaj więcej