SECESSION PALACE

A must-see for those following in the footsteps of Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) and Art Nouveau. The building itself is a flamboyant expression of the Art Nouveau style initiated by the Secessionists, with its impressive dome topped with golden leaves that beautifully marks the urban landscape. The Secession Palace is particularly famous for housing Klimt's famous Beethoven Frieze.

A masterpiece of Art Nouveau, this building has been dedicated to the defense of contemporary art since its inception. At the dawn of the ^20th century, this remarkable space was conceived and financed by secessionist artists as a manifesto in opposition to the academic art then being presented by the neighboring Künstlerhaus. Deciding to break with the conservative, bourgeois trend of historicism, these dissident artists wanted to defend and showcase the avant-garde movement to which they had committed themselves, and which would later be called Art Nouveau, in German Jugendstil. They were led by the young Klimt, who coined the term Sezession in 1897 to mark this break with academic art and historism. At the same time, Klimt and Max Kurzweill founded the magazine Ver Sacrum, the official organ of the Viennese Secession, which lasted until 1903.

The Secession pavilion was designed in 1898 by architect Joseph Maria Olbrich, a pupil of Otto Wagner, before his exile to Darmstadt. The building was designed in the purest Jugendstil style, with a plant-inspired cupola that opponents of the Secession nicknamed the "cabbage". This roof sculpture is composed of 3,000 laurel leaves arranged in a sphere and gilded with fine gold. It was renovated in the early 1980s, thanks to a private donation from the U.S. ambassador and his wife. On the pediment of the monumental entrance door, you can read the Secessionist motto: "To each age its art, to each art its freedom".

Inside, you'll find the sumptuous 34-metre-long Beethoven Frieze . This work was completed by the artist just in time for the 1902 Beethoven exhibition, a pictorial interpretation of the composer's ^9th Symphony . An abundance of gold, mother-of-pearl, vivid colors, angels and demons, force of evil, hymn to joy...

The upper floors feature 1,000^m2 of temporary exhibitions, platforms for contemporary artists including Danh Vo, Carlos Bunga and Rana Hamadeh.

Temporary exhibitions and guided tours.