The Marble Palace is located in the northeastern part of the
Kaiser Park in Bad Ischl and at one time served as the summer
residence of the Austrian Kaiser Franz Joseph I and his wife
Elizabeth of Bavaria, known as Sissi. Elizabeth loved to retire
within the walls of the palace to write poetry, plan travels, and
receive especially close friends. After the end of the Danube
monarchy, the building remained in the private property of the
Kaiser's descendants.
After the First World War, it served a
variety of purposes, but without the necessary restoration it fell
into increasing decline. In 1975, the owner of the palace, Markus
Habsburg-Lorraine, signed an agreement, according to which the right
to use the marble palace was transferred to the state of Upper
Austria for 50 years. The land authorities pledged in exchange to
carry out the necessary restoration work and return the building to
its former splendor.
Since 1978, a museum of photographic art
has been located within the walls of the building. The gem of the
museum is the collection of the work of the famous photographer Hans
Frank, which was previously kept in Salzburg. The exposed old
cameras are of no less interest. In parallel to the permanent
exhibitions, successive exhibitions are held that tell about the
history of photography. In general, over 10,000 people annually
visit the museum.
The Marmorschlössl is located in the northwest of the Kaiserpark
of Bad Ischl, above the Kaiservilla, the summer residence of Emperor
Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth.
story
The k. k.
Between 1856 and 1861, court gardener Franz Rauch built a two-storey
cottage in Tudor style for the empress in the park of the imperial
villa made of Untersberg marble. It was named Marmorschlössl after
the name of the building material. The wall development in the large
salon was carried out in the neo-Gothic style. 16 carved figures by
Johann Rint from the Nibelungenlied flank the respective window and
door openings. Although the imperial villa was furnished as a "place
of the private par excellence" without any emblem of authority, it
is surprising that the imperial coat of arms is enthroned alone in
the marble castle, in the large salon above the doors. Originally
the imperial cottage was used as the imperial family's breakfast
parlor. Immediately after the Imperial Highnesses arrived in Ischl,
a powerful black and yellow flag was hoisted at the Imperial
Cottage. For the population, this was a widely visible sign of the
presence of the very highest court in Ischl.
For Empress
Elisabeth, the cottage soon became a cool place to stay on hot
summer days and served as a private refuge to which she could
withdraw at any time. She wrote numerous poems there, planned trips
and made friends. In her absence, the cottage was mainly used by her
children, later also by her grandchildren. Emperor Franz Joseph
wrote to his wife that he often visited their children in the
cottage, "because they were there from morning to evening in the
warm weather of the last few days." it was inherited by the
Emperor's daughter Marie Valerie and her husband Franz Salvator of
Austria-Tuscany as personal property within the family. After the
First World War it served various purposes, including: From 1926 it
leased the Viennese dairy and ran a milk and coffee house there.
After the Second World War, the cottage was in danger of falling
into disrepair. In 1975 Markus Habsburg-Lothringen signed a contract
with the Province of Upper Austria for a period of 50 years. He
transferred the rights of use to the land; In return, the state took
over the maintenance of the building and used it from 1978 to
present Hans Frank's previously acquired photo collection and to run
a photo museum.
Photo museum
Between 1978 and March 2020,
the Marmorschlössl was a location of the Upper Austrian State
Museum, which was taken over by the newly founded OÖ Landes-Kultur
GmbH in April 2020. Up until that point in time it was the only
photo museum in Austria. The state of Upper Austria housed part of
the photo collection of Hans Frank (* 1908 in Pressburg, † 1987 in
Bad Ischl). The photographer and photo historian Frank was one of
the first in the German-speaking region to compile a collection on
the history of photography of significant cultural and historical
importance. After initially operating private showrooms at various
locations in Salzburg, the collection of more than 15,000 objects
was acquired by the Province of Upper Austria in 1975. In 2022, a
Hans Frank gallery will be set up on the ground floor of the
Francisco Carolinum.
Realignment
Due to the programming of
the Francisco Carolinum as a museum for photography and media art,
which took place in April 2020, the exhibition activities of the
Marmorschlössl will be devoted to topics from the Salzkammergut from
2021. Regardless of this, photographs with a regional reference will
continue to be on view.
Exhibitions (selection)
1989: “150
Years of Photography” - Viktor Kabelka Collection
2001: “Empress
Elisabeth and her court photographers” - Viktor Kabelka Collection
2006: “Empress Elisabeth and her children” - Viktor Kabelka
Collection
2007: “Under the open sky”, travel and landscape
photographs from the Frank Collection
2009: "Paris photos by Hans
Frank"
2013: "Die Welt" by Hans Frank. Eggleston, Dressler,
Furuya, Kandl, Mauracher, Orthacker, Willmann
2020: Friedrich
Simony. Dachstein glacier. In cooperation with the Photoinstitut
Bonartes