Austria. Media News.

Dear friends of Austria and fellow travelers,

Since your winter and ski trips are hopefully all booked, we are making you look forward to the warmer seasons in Austria and take a glimpse at the very sparkly cooperation of the Belvedere Palace and Swarovski Crystal Worlds.

Now, to take a look into the depth of your soul to find out if you are a winter or a summer person? We are sure Sigmund Freud would have had something to say and analyze about that! Why not go visit the newly renovated Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna!

​Enjoy your ​excursion to Vienna and ​into the depths of your soul!

With warmest regards,
Sigrid Pichler & Helen Bitschnau

Managers of Public Relations
Austrian Tourist Office New York City
sigrid.pichler@austria.info
helen.bitschnau@austria.info 
tel 212 575 7723 x 119 or x 112
www.austria.info 

2023 - the Belvedere in Vienna is celebrating its 300th anniversary! To honor this occasion, Swarovski Kristallwelten (Swarovski Crystal Worlds) is dedicating the exhibition area of its Vienna flagship store on Kärntner Straße 24 to the theme of the jubilee, “Golden Spring,” with which the Belvedere illustrates two basic motifs of its history: gold for tradition, and the sacred spring (ver sacrum) for a new awakening - a notion anchored in the public consciousness by the fin-de-siècle Viennese Secessionist movement, heralding new beginnings. The aim is to move forward with fresh visions, while also preserving old principles.

Carla Rumler, Curator at Swarovski Crystal Worlds, on the partnership between the two establishments:  “Swarovski Crystal Worlds Store Wien is opening up an unexpected space for art, in the middle of the city’s most famous shopping boulevard. Vienna’s international reputation as an art metropolis is only made possible with institutions that work tirelessly on the future viability of museums and don’t just curate new artists but also create new public spaces. We are honored to bring this powerful vision of the Golden Spring into Vienna’s inner city as a celebration of the Belvedere’s anniversary.” “Golden Spring” is on display at Swarovski Kristallwelten Store Wien until the end of October 2023. 

The anniversary activities at the Belvedere will focus on two major exhibition projects, both of which at the Lower Belvedere. The palace is delving into its own history with a year-round show in the Orangery entitled The Belvedere. 300 Years a Place of Art, which is shaped by power and prestige, courtly celebrations and epochal events such as the signing of the Austrian State Treaty in the Marble Hall in 1955. The exhibition also focuses on the collections that have been built up over the centuries. Initially postponed due to the pandemic, a special exhibition entitled Klimt. Inspired by Van Gogh, Rodin, Matisse... just launched in early February. The focus is on the question of who inspired the Viennese Art Nouveau figurehead Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). Together with the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, the show follows a trail that starts with his artistic forebears. In a striking juxtaposition, the show will display around 90 works by Klimt and his fellow artists. Also to coincide with the 300th anniversary, the Upper Belvedere is redesigning its exhibition collection, ready for a return to its former glory in March 2023. The focus is on the question of the relationship between artists and their time, and how their working methods reflect the eras that spawned them.

 

Sigmund Freud is acknowledged worldwide as the founder of an entire school of thought: Psychoanalysis. Yet, few people know that his high-profile career had a rather romantic beginning. When Freud was 26 years old, he fell madly in love with Martha Bernays. Only two months later, they got engaged. "My sweet girl, it only pains me to think I should be so powerless to prove my love for you," Freud wrote to Martha. In order to secure the financial status of his future family, Freud decided to switch careers from being a low-paid medical scientist to becoming a clinical doctor. Four years passed while Freud attained expertise in the clinical field until they finally married in 1886.

A good starting point to explore Sigmund Freud's life in Vienna, is the newly renovated Sigmund Freud Museum at Berggasse 19, where him and his family lived for more than 47 years. With the original layout of Freud's apartment largely preserved, the museum creates as authentic an experience as possible of the birthplace of psychoanalysis – the routes linking the individual parts of the exhibition are the same that Freud and his visitors would also have walked along.The museum is also home to Europe's most extensive library devoted to psychoanalysis, with an inventory of about 40,000 volumes. Freud's writings can be found in first-edition copies in original German, as well as multiple international editions, making the museum a treasure trove for researchers and other curious minds.

Other places of interest on your Tour de Freud through Vienna include the University of Vienna with its iconic arcaded courtyard and a palpable presence of great scholars past and present; the Café Landtmann, the former living room of Vienna's prominent thinkers and artists of the time - and a great place to refresh over coffee and pastries; as well as an excursion into Vienna's hilly woods and vineyards, where Freud, inspired by the grand views of the city, had the groundbreaking idea of 'The Interpretation of Dreams'.