Connoisseur’s Vienna - Art, architecture, music & private visits

Fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Vienna (Austrian Airlines). An afternoon walk around the Hofburg, the Habsburg winter palace, a vast agglomeration from six centuries of building activity. See the incomparable collection of precious regalia and objets d’art in the Treasury, and the glorious library hall by Fischer von Erlach. 

Walk through the Roman and mediaeval core to see a cross-section of architecture including Gothic and Baroque churches and some of Vienna’s most enchanting streetscapes. Guided tour of the Synagogue (Josef Kornhäusel, 1824), followed by a visit to a private chapel. The Jesuit church was spectacularly refurbished c. 1700 by the master of illusionist painting, Andrea Pozzo. In the afternoon private visit to the great Baroque palace of the Liechtenstein family (Gartenpalais), home to perhaps the finest collection in private hands in Europe. Evening concert at the Konzerthaus with Le Concert des Nations and Jordi Savall (conductor): Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 1, 2, 4.

Visit the palace and garden of Schloss Belvedere, built on sloping ground overlooking Vienna for Prince Eugene of Savoy, which constitutes one of the finest residential complexes of the 18th century. It now houses the Museum of Austrian Art with paintings by Klimt and Schiele. Located beyond the Ringstrasse, the Church of St Charles is the Baroque masterpiece of Fischer von Erlach.

Drive around the Ringstrasse, the boulevard which encircles the old centre and is the locus classicus of historicist architecture. The magnificent Liechtenstein Palace (Stadtpalais) was built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries by one of the richest families in the Habsburg Empire and has magnificent Rococo interiors and original furnishings. Evening visit to and dinner at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the world’s greatest art collections, particularly rich in Italian, Flemish and Dutch pictures.

Drive to the outskirts to see the facades of buildings by Otto Wagner; the richly decorated apartment blocks in the Linke Wienzeile and the hospital church ‘Am Steinhof’, the finest manifestation of Viennese Secessionism. The exteriors of Otto Wagner’s two summer houses provide a contrast of the development of his architectural styles. Visit the great hall of the Academy of Art and the Secession building, built in 1898 as an exhibition hall for avant-garde artists, containing Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. Evening performance at the Staatsoper: Pique Dame (Tchaikowsky), with Timur Zangiev (conductor), Yusif Eyvazov (Herman), Alexey Markov (Tomski and Pluto), Boris Pinkhasovich (Jeletzki), Elena Zaremba (Countess), Anna Netrebko (Lisa), Elena Maximova (Polina and Daphnis).

A tour of the Parliament building, a splendid example of enriched Neo-classicism, and visit a late-19th-century town house on the Ringstrasse. Afternoon at the Museumsquartier, an art centre in the imperial stables. The Museum of Applied Arts has international and Viennese collections, which are strikingly displayed.

Visit the Albertina with its splendid neo-classical interiors, also housing one of Europe’s most important collections of modernist art, including works by Monet, Picasso, Gauguin and Chagall. Time for a leisurely lunch before driving to the airport for the flight to London Heathrow, arriving at at c. 6.40pm.

Please note: because the itinerary is dependent on a number of appointments with private owners, the order and even the content of the tour may vary.