Palais Equitable

The Palais Equitable stands in Vienna’s Innere Stadt, on the corner of Stock-im-Eisen-Platz beside Stephansplatz. It occupies the site of five small medieval buildings cleared between 1856 and 1886 to widen nearby Kärntner Straße. Designed by Andreas Streit, the building rose between 1887 and 1891 for an American insurance company. Its façade is richly decorated with American eagles and bronze reliefs by Rudolf Weyr. The medieval Stock im Eisen nail-tree is preserved in a glass niche on the Kärntner Straße corner. The building’s interior is equally grand, with marble from Hallein and granite from Saxony forming a dramatic stairway and vestibule. A glass-covered courtyard is fully clad in colourful tile and maiolica, and Julius Victor Berger painted the lobby ceiling while Viktor Oskar Tilgner and Johann Schindler contributed further ornamentation. The second floor shows more stucco work by Berger, and the building once housed the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s uniform supplier and the United States consulate. Today the Palais Equitable serves as offices for several companies, including Sal. Oppenheim’s Austrian branch and a shop for Augarten Porcelain. After wartime damage it was restored in 1949, and the entrance was renovated again in 1997. The Stock im Eisen corner remains a visible link to Vienna’s medieval past.