Palais Zichy, Vienna:
19th Century Classicist Palace in Penzing
Palais Zichy is a Gartenpalais ("Garden Palace") in the eastern part of Penzing, the 14th district of Vienna. It was built in the early 19th century for a Hungarian noble family, the - you might have guessed it - family of Zichy. The palace was built in Classicist style. Later, the palais was sold to the Sina family, wealthy bankers who also owned a rather impressive palace at the Hoher Markt square. This palace was destroyed by direct hits in WWII, the ruins were demolished after 1945.
Palais Zichy was designed by the artichtes Armand Bauque and Albert Pio, although the degree of their contribution is disputed. In any case, Palais Zichy wouldn′t be their masterpiece; rather the Palais Bourgoing, which made the two architects famous in Vienna. Palais Zichy has a front façade that is rather plain, but elegantly divided into two sections. The parts under the roof are more elaborately decorated with ornaments.
The garden of the palais is still remarkably extensive; however, it takes some imagination to recall its 19th century glory. It must have been an old-fashioned garden even at the time when it was built, resembling rather a formal Baroque garden than the landscape gardens that became fashionable in Vienna at the Classicist age. The part of the building that is facing the garden is a lot more playful and elegant; you can tell that the representative face of Palais Zichy was turned to those who ambled in its parks.
Palais Zichy Today & Nearby Attractions in Vienna
Today, Palais Zichy is home to the embassy of the People′s Republic of Korea. You might wonder why a country like North Korea could bother about such an elaborate embassy in an insignificant country like Austria; not knowing the reason myself, I would think of the UN′s Atomic Energy Agency and other important international organisations that are situated in Vienna - they might provide a better reason than Austria alone could.
Classicist palais are rare in Vienna; note Palais Clam-Gallas; Palais Grassalkovics; the very important Palais Rasumofsky; and Palais Pallavicini, which was sadly "Baroquinised" as a concession to criticism. Seems like all Classicist palaces of Vienna had odd names…Other attractions in Penzing are numerous, but can be a bit far from each other.
I recommend to simply look up my article on the 14th district. Note that Palais Zichy is closer to the Gürtel area and thus well-connected to the city centre; however, in terms of sightseeing, this also means that the attractions around the Westbahnhof might be significantly closer to Palais Zichy than things in the west of Penzing, regardless of whether they might be in other districts.
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Vienna by District
District Overview - 1st (Innere Stadt) - 2nd (Leopoldstadt) - 3rd (Landstraße) - 4th (Wieden) - 5th (Margareten)- 6th (Mariahilf) - 7th (Neubau) - 8th (Josefstadt) - 9th (Alsergrund) - 10th (Favoriten) - 11th (Simmering) - 12th (Meidling) - 13th (Hietzing) - 14th (Penzing) - 15th (Fünfhaus) - 16th (Ottakring) - 17th (Hernals) - 18th (Währing) - 19th (Döbling) - 20th (Brigittenau) - 21st (Floridsdorf) - 22nd (Donaustadt) - 23rd (Liesing) - Ringstraße - Surroundings
Further Reading
Planet Vienna on Palais Zichy (German, but nice pics)
My article on the Palais of Vienna
