Architecture of Traunsee Castle

Echoing the French Renaissance

„Sicardsburg und van der Nüll / Haben beide keinen Stüll / Gotisch, Griechisch, Renaissance / Das ist ihnen alles aans.“

("Sicardsburg and van der Nüll / Neither have any style / Gothic, Greek, Renaissance / It's all the same to them.")

This contemporary mocking poem expresses dissatisfaction with two prominent Viennese architects of eclecticism. In the construction of the Vienna State Opera, the two use a wide variety of stylistic elements from different eras.

The disappointment of the Viennese public turns into a press campaign against the two architects. When the street level in front of the opera house is raised by a metre after construction begins, the opera is described as a "sunken chest" and – in an analogy to the disastrous battle of 1866 – the "Königgrätz of architecture". According to popular belief, Van der Nüll is inconsolable as a result of this criticism and hangs himself on April 3, 1868; his wife Marie is eight months pregnant at the time.

Classicism, the recourse to the architecture of Greco-Roman antiquity, is gradually being replaced by neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance.

So it is no coincidence that Traunsee Castle, commissioned by Philip of Württemberg, is built in the style of the French Renaissance; after all he was raised as the grandson of the last French king, Louis Philippe, the "Citizen King", at his court in Paris.

The planning and construction of Traunsee Castle are carried out by architect Heinrich Adam, who has already designed Palais Württemberg (today the Hotel Imperial) on Vienna's Ringstrasse. The Viennese architect Heinrich von Ferstel, the builder of the Votive Church, is responsible for the castle chapel.

How indeed does the idea come about to apply architectural styles of the past, dating back centuries, to functional buildings such as train stations and tenements?

Historicism is closely linked to the culture and bourgeois ideology of the 19th century. The bourgeoisie, who, in contrast to the nobility, lack the continuous autonomous history manifested in dynasties, construct their own. The bourgeoisie sees themselves as the final and most developed social class and therefore regard all previous epochs from the citizens’ standpoint.

The citizens of Athens are the first to develop democracy – even if only a small percentage of the population participate in it – so the Viennese Parliament Building, for example, is built in the style of a Greek temple. The citizens of the Middle Ages allow towns and cities to flourish through the crafts and trades they are masters of - hence Vienna’s City Hall is built in the Gothic style. Citizens of Italian cities become rich and powerful as merchants and bankers, as patrons they promote the artists of the Renaissance – so the art academies are built in the style of the Italian Renaissance.

Without this background information, historicist architecture is confusing in its seemingly random diversity, and, if you will excuse the expression, occasional ugliness.