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| Groß Wappensaal of the Landhaus Klagenfurt |
The capital of the Austrian state of Carinthia, Klagenfurt boasts a splendid
Landhaus, or "country house," built as the seat of the state government in its more feudal arrangement, and which now serves as the state house as well as a museum. It's famous for its magnificent Wappensaal (Hall of Arms), a must-see for heraldry geeks and ornamentalists alike.
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| The arms of the noble families of Carinthia painted on the walls of the Klagenfurt Landhaus Wappensaal. |
The Landhaus and the Wappensaal date from the early 16th century but suffered a great fire in 1723. The
building was remodeled in the Baroque style and the Hall redecorated by
painter Josef Ferdinand Fromiller (1693-1760). In addition to the grand
Scheinarchitektur ceiling fresco and a pair of murals depicting important events in the founding of the
Carinthian state, the walls are covered with over 650 coats of arms of
all of the armigerous families of the region. Some additions were
made in later years all the way through the 19th century, with a few
spaces left blank to honor extinct families whose crests could no longer be found.
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| Josef
Ferdinand Fromiller's ceiling fresco features a brilliant quadratura
colonnade and portraits of himself and his sons in the corner. |
The trompe l'oeil in this grand hall is elegantly painted, and very effective. However the almost graphic pattern of arms emblazoning the walls is stunning both as decor and as a device for creating a sense of continuous history. Which is rather the point after all.
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| marquetry doors and surrounds made of black marble |
The inlaid marble floor and baroque marble doorways were created by a Venetian master named Francesco Robba. The marquetry doors are also particularly fine.
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| After years of traveling together, Erling has now amassed a collection
of photos of me taking photos. He is over there capturing me with his iPhone. |
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| Kleiner Wappensaal (1740), currently used as a conference room. |
A smaller Wappensaal in the Landhaus was also painted in 1740 by Fromiller with a further 298 arms of Burgraves, Presidents, and Chancellors. This room is in use for conferences and has been modernized around the murals. The ceiling mural is entitled
"Veritas Temporis Filia" (Truth is the Daughter of Time.)
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| Is your conference room emblazoned with armorial splendor? No? Well maybe it should be. |
For German and Austrian arms there is of course a great book (just as there exists for English and French arms) identifying each family and you can find this Wappenbuch online.
I am reining myself in tremendously here because I can go on and on about heraldry and other rooms decorated in this way, and am bursting to do so, but I am going to have to save that for another time.
Stay tuned for more from Austria coming up soon!
all photos in this post by Lynne Rutter, Klagenfurt, December 2012
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