Renaissance in Austria

Schallaburg Castle, one of the most beautiful Renaissance castles north of the Alps, was threatened with complete ruin in the years following the Second World War. It was only when the unclear ownership situation was settled and the province of Lower Austria became the owner of the castle that work began on renovating the building in 1968.

An extensive restoration program was developed together with the Federal Monuments Office, which was the most difficult and largest monument conservation project undertaken by the state of Lower Austria in the post-war period. After six years, the restoration work was completed and the revitalized palace was reopened on 21 May 1974 with the provincial exhibition “Renaissance in Austria”. “The exhibition could usher in a new era for Schallaburg Castle. This magnificent castle should be recognized in all its significance, it should become a forum for a lively intellectual exchange of ideas, a place of cultural presentation that also incorporates the living present,” wrote exhibition director Rupert Feuchtmüller in the catalog. In the very first year of the exhibition, 323,125 people visited Schallaburg Castle and saw “Renaissance in Austria”.

The 1974 provincial exhibition was a cultural-historical exhibition, which was highly appreciated by both the exhibition organizers and the public at the time: at that time, the view was held that the presentation of an individual work always raises the question of wider contexts. The provincial exhibitions had also followed this path since 1960; the Prandtauer exhibition (Melk Abbey, 1960), the Biedermeier exhibition (Gutenstein and Miesenbach, 1962) and the Troger/Baroque exhibition (Altenburg Abbey, 1963) come to mind - exhibitions with a cultural-historical and historical expansion.

Due to its artistic wealth, Schallaburg Castle was itself the subject of the exhibition. The exhibition concept made reference to this, and such a task naturally meant that the historical building was given a certain priority and the exhibition was harmoniously integrated into its surroundings. The exhibition designers wanted to present the general intellectual background, but also to show the historical, cultural-historical and artistic contexts.

“Renaissance in Austria” was a great success, with the daily record of 5,864 visitors set on September 22, 1974. Some revealing detailed figures were published in the ‘Cultural Reports’: 84 percent of visitors came from Austria. 53 percent were individual visitors, 23 percent group participants, eleven percent schoolchildren and students and a further eleven percent school groups. 39 percent of visitors took part in guided tours of the castle. 17,698 catalogs were sold, 76,700 postcards and around 7,000 slides.

Schallaburg Castle