Palais Herberstein (Sackstraße), Graz

The Palais Herberstein stands in Graz’s Innere Stadt district on the busy Sackstraße. Built from two merged 16th-century town houses, it later became a grand Baroque residence for the Eggenberg family. After passing through several noble hands, the Herbersteins commissioned Josef Hueber in the 18th century to remodel it in late-Baroque style. The palace is worth visiting for its layered history and the craftsmen who shaped it. King Ferdinand granted the site in 1528, Georg Sigmund von Herberstein owned it by 1581, and the Eggenbergs united the houses before the Herbersteins returned in 1742. Hueber’s staircase of 1754–57, with frescoes by Philipp Carl Laubmann and sculptures by Veit Königer, is ranked among Styria’s finest Baroque staircases. Visitors find three wings arranged around two courtyards that reach back to the Schloßberg rock. The left courtyard once housed stables carved into the cliff. The main staircase leads to the second-floor Nobletage, where the white-and-gold Spiegelsaal and the Yellow and Red Salons preserve original mirrors, panelling and two surviving Formentini stoves. The oval room beyond carries another Laubmann ceiling fresco, completing a sequence of elegant interiors.