Eggenberg Castle

The palace's origins date back to the late Middle Ages, when Balthasar Eggenberger acquired the Orthof between 1460 and 1463 and expanded it into a fortified noble residence, adopting the family's name. A chapel was established in the freestanding tower even before 1470. In the 16th century, the L-shaped palace underwent several expansions. From 1625, Prince Hans Ulrich commissioned court architect Giovanni Pietro de Pomis for a fundamental reconstruction, skillfully integrating older structural elements, including the Gothic Marian chapel as the center of the new complex. After de Pomis' death in 1631, Laurenz van de Syppe, Pietro Valnegro, and Antonio Pozzo continued the work, and the shell was completed around 1635/36. The interior decoration, particularly the ceiling cycle with approximately 600 paintings, was completed under Johann Seyfried von Eggenberg from 1666. Hans Adam Weissenkircher finished the series of paintings in the Planet Hall by 1684/85. After the male line of the Eggenberg family died out, Johann Leopold Graf Herberstein, husband of the last princess, had the palace modernized in the Rococo style between 1754 and 1762. In the 19th century, changes focused on transforming the Baroque garden into an English landscape garden. In 1939, the State of Styria acquired the complex. Since 1953, after restoration work, Eggenberg Palace has been open to the public as a museum.

Eggenberg Palace is located in the west of the provincial capital Graz, in the Graz-Eggenberg district of Styria, Austria, at an altitude of approximately 384 m above sea level.

Today, Eggenberg Palace serves as a museum and houses collections of the Universalmuseum Joanneum. Visitors can tour the state rooms and explore the extensive landscape garden. The palace park also features the Planet Garden and the Archaeological Museum. The numismatic collection and the Old Gallery are housed within the palace.

• Algersdorf Palace (palace), approx. 0.3 km away
• Rothenburg Manor (manor house and estate), approx. 0.8 km away
• Kaiserfeldschlössl (palace), approx. 2.1 km away
• Unterthal Castle Ruin (castle), approx. 2.1 km away