History of the Palais Coburg

The history of the Palais Coburg started long before the construction of the building itself.

In the years from 1545 and 1555 the Vienna city wall was being renewed. Bastions were arranged in stars and connected by ramparts for stability. Named after the leading engineer, the Braunbastei was constructed on today´s geographic location of the Palais Coburg.

In 1802 Earl Franz Kohàry, a Hungarian nobleman, acquired the building on the bastion. Ten years after the marriage between Earl Kohàry´s daughter and Prince Ferdinand from Sachsen-Coburg, the Earl died and the townhouse was passed on to Prince Ferdinand.

Based on the Braunbastei the Palais Coburg was built between the years 1843 and 1847. The design came from the Austrian architect Karl Schleps and was created for Duke Ferdinand. Due to the long building period the Palais Coburg on the Braunbastei was not finalized under Duke Ferdinand but for his second son, Duke August. It covered an area of 4568 square meters, of which 2964 are built-in. The Palais Coburg therefore still possesses the largest remains of the Renaissance defense wall.

Ferdinand had married Princess Clementine, the daughter of King Louis Philippe of Bourbon, on April 20, 1843, and selected the palace as his and his wife’s Viennese domicile.

In 1857 emperor Franz Joseph I decreed the dismantling of the city wall to make way for today´s famous ring road. A few years later, in 1864, the Palais was erected with its neoclassical garden facade including the order of columns.

Unfortunately, at the end of the Second World War, an artillery strike as well as a bomb, which fortuitously did not explode, hit the “Coburgbastei”.

The last Coburg – Princess Sarah Aurelia – sold the Palais in 1978 to a real estate agent. In the early 1990s the “Zentralsparkasse” bought it and at last, in 1997, the POK Pühringer Privatstiftung aquired the Palais Coburg. After three years of planning and three more years of reconstruction the Palais was turned into a superior luxury hotel.