The story
On Bankgasse, a few steps from the Burgtheater, stands the town palace the princes of Liechtenstein bought in 1694 and still own today. Inside, the state rooms look much as they did in the 1840s. Prince Alois II had them redone between 1836 and 1847 in the so-called Second Rococo, with gilded curves and silk on the walls, and the cabinetmaker Michael Thonet, later known for his bentwood chairs, laid the intricate marquetry floors.
The building is older than its interiors. Work began in 1691 for Count Kaunitz, a statesman at the imperial court, and after the sale Domenico Martinelli, an Italian architect, completed it as one of the first major High Baroque palaces in Vienna. A restoration from 2008 to 2013 reopened it with pictures from the family's private collection. The older masters hang in the Garden Palace in another part of the city, and here the walls are given to Neoclassicism and the Biedermeier years, with portraits by Friedrich von Amerling and scenes by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. The rooms open only on booked guided tours, and the ballroom is also hired out for events.
