The main gardens at Belvedere form the extra crunchy peanut butter between two slices of art museums. A splash of colour to contrast with the stoically baroque pale-walled architecture of the buildings.
- Well-kept gardens, bookended by palaces
- (Obviously) better in warmer seasons
- …also because of the fountains
- Free entry & open early in the day
- Book Belvedere palace tickets* online
- See also:
- Belvedere overview & visitor tips
- Upper Belvedere palace
- Lower Belvedere palace
The gardens
(Part of the gardens with Lower Belvedere at the rear)
Walking up from Belvedere’s lower palace feels like traversing a costume drama film set, but without bumping into Keira Knightley.
Actually, the gardens do serve as a film set. They appear, for example, in Season 3 and Season 4 of the Vienna Blood detective drama. And in the film The Woman in Gold, where the Belvedere galleries form part of the story of Maria Altmann’s efforts to reclaim a Klimt portrait stolen by the Nazis.
Sculpted hedges, graceful fountains, and cherubic statues fill the location. And all looking clean and tidy as you climb to the magnificence of the upper palace.
(Water feature with Upper Belvedere in the distance)
On a warm summer’s day, the kind where the neighbours might leave a window open, you can get lucky and hear (as I did) the gentle tones of a solo violinist from the convent next door. A very Viennese moment.
Even in winter you have something to admire, thanks to the geometric patterns mapped out by flower beds and the pruned ornamental conifers.
The gardens have a Versailles feel, spread across three large terraces, though on a much less grand scale than their French colleague.
(Panorama view of Vienna from the Belvedere gardens; postcard from around 1898 manufactured by C. Ledermann jun. (also: Karl Ledermann); Sammlung Wien Museum; excerpt reproduced with permission under the terms of the CC0 licence)
Most people focus on the terraced area between the two palaces, but be sure to go around Upper Belvedere to find the small lake.
The southernmost point of the lake is the place to take an excellent photo of that upper palace. The water reflects the front of the building and looks particularly spectacular at night, even more so when the Christmas market occupies the palace forecourt.
Point your camera in the opposite direction for a shot of the modern architecture rising above the baroque edges of Belvedere, as if created in a science fiction writer’s imagination.
The history
(View of the gardens around 1785, as pictured by Carl Schütz and published by Artaria & Co. Verlag; Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 18994; excerpt reproduced with permission under the terms of the CC0 licence)
The gardens were the first part of the Belvedere complex to start construction back in 1700, directly after Prince Eugene bought up the land.
The designer (Dominique Girard) studied under André Le Nôtre, the landscape architect behind Versailles (aha!). You might know Le Nôtre from the Alan Rickman film, A Little Chaos.
It took a couple of decades to complete the gardens, largely because the builder responsible for the foundations of the main fountain left early to finish Mrs Schmidt’s kitchen tiling. The task took longer than he expected. (I might have made that story up.)
Later, the prince even added a zoo. (That story’s true.)
Tickets & visitor tips
The gardens cost nothing to view and have been open to the public since 1780.
The gates usually unlock at 6.30 or 7 in the morning, with closing times depending on the season.
If you look back down the gardens from the rear of Upper Belvedere palace, for example from outside the visitors entrance or from a north-facing window inside, you also get a reasonable view across Vienna toward Stephansdom cathedral.
(For even better views of the city, try these suggestions.)
If you like gardens, the Belvedere complex actually adjoins two other bundles of plant-based joy: the Alpine Gardens and the Botanical Garden. Not to mention the smaller privy gardens, which are part of the ticketed Lower Belvedere area.
Oh, and Vienna has another palace garden to admire, too: the park and gardens at Schönbrunn Palace.
How to get to Belvedere
See the main Belvedere article for directions.