Austrian Baroque: Johann Bernhard Fischer Von Erlach

Fischer von Erlach flourished in a new era of exhibitionism, Mary Henderson writes, to become the most influential Austrian architect of the Baroque period, shaping the tastes of the Habsburg empire.

Mary Henderson | Published in Volume 7 Issue 2 February 1957

In the fifty years following the defeat of the Turks in 1683, Vienna was in a mood to show off. The Habsburgs wanted to display their power, the Church the triumph of its counter-reformation, the aristocrats and rich merchants, who gathered to Vienna from the distant lands of the Empire, their riches and their taste. Gorgeous triumphal arches, monuments and palaces sprang up to satisfy this new “Baulust.” There was no more need for sobriety; architects let soar their imagination.

This new era of exhibitionism and self-glorification found in Baroque architecture — aptly described by Sacheverell Sitwell as “bastard and romanticized classicism” — a perfect medium of expression. Originally, Italians were commissioned to build new palaces and churches, and to alter and embellish old German Gothic buildings; then, Austrians took their place. The first and most eminent Austrian architect to overcome his Italian rivals by successfully adapting the “Slilo borrominesco” to his native land was Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach, sometimes referred to as the German Palladio.