!!!Ambras

Ambras Castle, southeast of Innsbruck, arose from an Andechs family 
castle, built after 1288; the keep and main living quarters have 
survived to the present. Archduke  Ferdinand II made Ambras his 
summer residence. The upper palace was constructed using parts of 
preceding buildings until 1566, the lower palace for the armouries and 
art chamber was built 1572-1583, and the Renaissance park was designed 
before 1574. The upper palace is a 4-storey complex with an irregular 
layout built around a longitudinal rectangular courtyard; grisaille 
painting in the inner courtyard (around 1567). The elongated Spanish 
Hall built 1570-1572 by G. Lucchese has a coffered ceiling and inlaid 
doors by K. Gottlieb and is divided by architectural painting in the 
grisaille style and richly decorated. The Kaiserzimmer (emperor's 
rooms) are adjacent to the east. The lower palace housed stables in 
the granary and a library and, in additional buildings, armouries, the 
art chamber and wunderkammer (paintings, sculptures, arts and crafts 
of the 16%%sup th/% /17th centuries) and the antiquities chamber for 
displaying 85 sculptures. The "Ambras Collection," set up in the lower 
palace by Ferdinand II from around 1580 on, was the first museum 
of the Modern era. After his death, his son Karl von Burgau sold the 
Collection to Emperor Rudolf II, but it was not brought to Vienna 
until 1805, after the Bavarian occupation of Tyrol. Ambras Castle is 
now the property of the Republic of Austria and serves as an annex to 
the Museum of Art History.

!Further reading
Hispania - Austria, Kunst um 1492, exhibition 
catalogue, Ambras 1992.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Ambras|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]