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For ten whole months, from September 1814 to June 1815, the
imperial residential city of Vienna was the centre of Europe. Never
before had there been a comparable meeting of sovereigns and their
ambassadors: two emperors (Tsar Alexander I, Emperor Francis
I[II]), five kings (Frederick I of Württemberg, Frederick VI of
Denmark, Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick August I of
Saxony, Maximilian I of Bavaria), also many princes and diplomats
from practically all parts of the continent converged upon th e
capital for the diplomatic proceedings. The re - ordering of the
European continent aimed to secure political stability at last
after the Napoleonic Wars. Europe’s borders were redefined, the
political balance of power re - established. These diplomatic proc
eedings were accompanied by entertainments of all kinds – balls,
festivities, sleigh rides and receptions, also theatre performances
and musical events, the splendours of which were documented in
words and pictures. Vienna blossomed as the centre of social life;
the enhanced purchasing power also boosted the economy, brought
foreign painters into the imperial capital, and spurred on all
genres of art production on the home front. Thus the city became
the political, cultural and social nucleus of Europe. Wi th
numerous historical photographs, paintings and historical documents
the publication will show the impact that this meeting had on the
whole European continent and especially on Vienna. Several essays
will draw light on the political, the cultural and th e
entertainment side of this event of the century.
The building intended to house the University of Vienna was built
in 1753/1755 according to a plan drawn up by Jean Nicolas Jadot, an
architect from Lothringen. The opening celebrations, presided over
by Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresia, took place in
April 1756. In 1857 the building was presented to the Imperial
Academy of Sciences - the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 1945 -
which had been founded by Emperor Ferdinand I in 1846. The building
site for the new assembly hall of the university was not chosen by
chance, but was located in that part of town in which the
university buildings had been since the late 14th century. The
urban setting and the narrow building area called for an unusual
design for this "Neue Aula." The narrow side, facing the square,
needed to be emphasised by means of its main facade, which now
competed with the previously dominant front of the University
Church of the Jesuits as a standout feature, thus leading to a
reordering of the visual framework of the square. Such a weakening
of the sacred context of the square was symbolic of the
reorganisation of the course of academic studies at the university,
made manifest through the erection of the Neue Aula and which was
taken out of the hands of the "Society of Jesus" in successive
steps lasting until 1759. If at the beginning the main idea was to
set up apartments in the new building for virtually all of the
professors of the schools of law and medicine, their preferential
treatment can be understood when one considers that particularly
the practically oriented schools (law and medicine) were affected
by the university reforms of the time. The driving force behind the
speedy erection of the building was the Chancellor of the
University of Vienna, Archbishop Johann Joseph Graf Trautson, whom
Maria Theresia had entrusted with all building projects in March of
1753. No later than February 1754, the unification of the four
schools in the new building was placed on the agenda, thus
stressing the common identity of the academic disciplines - a point
of view that was convincingly taken into account in the frescoes by
Gregorio Guglielmi (1755) that decorate the "Festsaal" [great
hall]. As far as can be inferred today from the written and
pictorial documents, the erection of the new university building
should in no way be interpreted as an isolated undertaking. In the
final analysis it was part of a comprehensive plan to give the
university quarter, which had been located there since the Middle
Ages, a clearer structure and a new definition within the concept
of town planning. This publication offers a detailed study of the
history and the design and decoration of the former assembly hall
of the university - today the main building of the Austrian Academy
of Sciences - and a description of the genesis and function of this
building, all based on a large number of written and pictorial
sources.
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