Palais Lobkowitz, Vienna

Palais Lobkowitz on Lobkowitzplatz in Vienna's 1st district is one of the oldest surviving urban palaces in the city and counts as the first significant baroque palace built after the Second Turkish Siege of 1683. Construction began in 1685 by Giovanni Pietro Tencala for Count Dietrichstein, with the striking portal designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. In 1745 the Bohemian princely family Lobkowitz acquired the building; Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian was an important patron of Ludwig van Beethoven, whose Third Symphony Eroica was premiered in the great hall here in 1804. Today the palace houses the Austrian Theatre Museum with stage models, costumes and a large collection of theatre-related manuscripts and prints. The Eroica Hall can be visited on guided tours.