Österreichisches Schlösschen (Radolfzell am Bodensee)

The Österreichisches Schlösschen is a small Renaissance palace in the centre of Radolfzell am Bodensee. It stands alone on the eastern side of the market square, beside the town’s Münster and the old Rathaus. The building began as two medieval canons’ houses in 1619, intended for Archduke Leopold V of Austria, but the Thirty Years’ War halted work in 1621. After decades as a wine store and granary, the shell was finished in the early 18th century and became the town hall, then a school, an antiquities museum, and finally a library. The façade shows a stepped gable with paired windows and two small square towers. Inside, the ground floor still has 17th-century cross-vaulted rooms, while the upper storeys display delicate stucco bandwork from about 1735. Today the building houses the Radolfzell city library, founded in 1938. The library occupies the first floor since 1973 and expanded into the ground and second floors in 1984. From the market square the sandstone portal, decorated with coats of arms, marks the entrance to this quiet cultural space.