Belvedere Palace - Upper Belvedere

Belvedere Palace

On May 15, 1955, on the balcony of the Belvedere Palace, the Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold Figl held up the just signed State Treaty and said: "Austria is free".

The undersigned were the State Secretaries Wjatscheslaw Molotow (UdSSR), John Foster Dulles (USA), Harold Macmillan (GB) and Antoine Pinay (France) for the allied states and Leopold Figl for Austria as well as the four high commissioners of the allied states.

I was there with my parents - with thousands of other people who all wanted to experience Austria's new freedom. It was the start into good times!

The Belvedere Palace was built by Lukas von Hildebrandt (finished 1723) to be the residence of the Prince Eugene of Savoy. Nowadadys there are wonderful museums in there.

Lower Belvedere

Belvedere


It was a wonderful autumnal day in Vienna, warm and sunny, and I had some hours off unexpectedly. I went for a walk to the Belvedere Gardens. Closing time was at 6:30 p.m. and that was the time I took this picture