Austrian National Library: State Hall
Austrian National Library: State Hall features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Vienna. Give it roughly ~90 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type museum
- Suggested visit ~90 min
- Vienna Vienna guide
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About Austrian National Library: State Hall
A Baroque hall nearly eighty metres long, built as the emperors’ private court library and only called ‘national’ after 1920, frescoed ceilings, giant globes, and Prince Eugene’s books.
The Austrian National Library is the country’s largest, grown from the imperial Court Library and renamed only in 1920, after the monarchy fell. Its showpiece is the Prunksaal, or State Hall, a Baroque interior built for Emperor Charles VI’s library. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach designed it and his son Joseph Emanuel completed it after his death, with the shell finished around 1726 and the decoration about 1730.
Roughly 77 metres long and some 20 metres high, the hall centres on an oval crowned by a fresco dome. Daniel Gran painted the ceiling as an apotheosis of Charles VI, whose marble statue by Paul Strudel stands below. The shelves hold about 200,000 volumes printed between roughly 1501 and 1850, including Prince Eugene of Savoy’s 15,000-book library and four monumental Baroque globes by Vincenzo Coronelli. It ranks among the largest and finest Baroque library halls anywhere.
Did you know? Despite its name, the hall was never built for a nation. It was the Habsburg emperors’ private court library and only became the ‘National Library’ in 1920, once the monarchy had collapsed.
How long is a visit to Austrian National Library: State Hall?
Set aside roughly ~90 min for Austrian National Library: State Hall. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Austrian National Library: State Hall worth your time?
Austrian National Library: State Hall is among the 35 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Vienna, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Vienna
Day 1 of the Vienna in 2 days itinerary →Day 1 of the Vienna in 3 days itinerary →
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Hear the story of Austrian National Library: State Hall
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