Exhibition

Karl Lanckoroński was a colorful personality in turn-of-the-century Vienna at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. His palace, built by Fellner and Helmer in the neo-baroque style not far from the Belvedere (which was destroyed in World War II), housed one of the most important private art collections and was famous for its collection of antiquities and paintings (works by Tintoretto, Canaletto and Rembrandt, among others). The traces of his life are also present in Vienna-Hietzing: between 1894 and 1896 he had the Faniteum in Ober Sankt Veit built as a mausoleum for his second deceased wife Franziska Xaveria von Attems-Heiligenkreuz, called "Fani". The building is now a protected monument and serves the Carmelite nuns as a convent. The count found his final resting place in the Vienna-Hietzing cemetery.

The count with Polish roots also played an important role in public life. For example, he was one of the pioneers of the modern idea of monument preservation. He was committed to the preservation of the cityscape, ensembles worthy of protection as well as individual buildings of Old Vienna. Among other things, he is credited with saving the giant gate of St. Stephen's Cathedral, which would have fallen victim to the pickaxe without his efforts.

He was surrounded by numerous artists of his time, including Arnold Böcklin and Hans Makart, Auguste Rodin, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Rainer Marie Rilke and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and he was in lively correspondence with many personalities of his time.

Research trips took him to Lycia, the Asia Minor landscapes of Pamphylia and Pisidia, and to Italy, among other places. Of great scientific and historical value is also his photo collection, consisting of about 60,000 photographs, which documents European works of art as well as the count's travels.  

The exhibition at the Polish Academy of Sciences - Scientific Center in Vienna shows historical views of Vienna and juxtaposes them with quotations from the Count's written legacy, which refer to the buildings and ensembles depicted in the photographs. In this way, the often invoked Old Vienna, as Lanckoronski perceived it, comes to life. The photos come from the Phototek Lanckoroński of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts in Cracow. The exhibition was designed by Adam Korczyński, Aleksandra Szymanowicz-Hren, Joanna Winiewicz-Wolska and Anna Ziemlewska.

The PAUart project of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts aims to make the artistic and scientific collections in the Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts accessible. In 2014, 9,000 objects from the Scientific Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts in Kraku, and the Archib of Science of the two academies in Krakow were processed and digitized. read more at PAUart and in the Gazeta Wyborcza information supplement.

The exhibition was opened on June 22, 2013.
On the occasion of the opening the following lectures were given by the curators of the exhibition:

Joanna Winiewicz-Wolska: Graf Karl Lanckoroński und seine Tochter Professoressa Karla

Aleksandra Szymanowicz-Hren: Auf den Spuren von Graf Karol Lanckoroński in Wien