Palais Palm

The Palais Palm once stood in central Vienna as a grand Baroque residence built for the Princes of Palm. It occupied a prominent position near the old city walls, surrounded by other noble palaces in the Bankgasse area. The building was demolished in the 1850s when the city’s fortifications were removed. The palace gained fame during the 1814–15 Congress of Vienna, when two influential women ran rival political salons within its walls. Duchess Wilhelmine of Sagan hosted gatherings in the right wing, while Princess Katharina Bagration conducted diplomacy in the left wing. Both had previously been connected to the diplomat Clemens von Metternich. The building’s interior featured elaborate stucco work by Hieronymus Moosbrugger, a master craftsman from Vorarlberg. An old engraving by Salomon Kleiner shows the palace as a nine-bay structure with symmetrical wings and a central projection. The façade displayed rusticated stonework at ground level and decorative window frames above. A carved cartouche above the main door displayed the family’s coat of arms, flanked by sculpted figures. Though the palace itself is gone, its former site lies near the Burgtheater in a row of historic buildings.