Schloß Belvedere (Belvedere Palace) Photos

I rambled over to the Belvedere Palace in May because I'd heard that they were keeping cows on the grounds as part of a Gedankenjahr (Year of Remembrances) exhibition. Vienna (and the rest of Austria) was occuppied for 10 years by the English, French, Russians and US Americans after World War II. Fearing a Russian blockade of Vienna (such as the Berlin blockade of 1948), the other allies turned many of Vienna's parks and public places into agricultural centers. Cows were kept on palace grounds and vegetable gardens were planted in parks. Unfortunately, I didn't find any cows that day, but I still got a few nice pictures of the palace.

The baroque Belvedere Palace was designed by the architect Lukas von Hildebrandt for Eugen, Prinz von Savoyen (Prince Eugene of Savoy).
 

The palace consists of two main buildings, called the Upper and Lower Palaces. Most of the pictures in this post are of the larger Upper Palace, which was mostly used for entertainment and reception.

This is a photo of the Lower Palace, Prince Eugene's residence.

Upper Palace - On the left, workers are setting up a stage in preparation for a free concert.

Lower Palace - Eugene was born in France, but became an important Austrian military leader.

Upper Palace - He helped turn back the last attack of the Turks on Vienna, in 1683.

Upper Palace Reflection Pool