Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: Main Staircase

The newly constructed museum building in the Vienna Ringstraße was ceremoniously opened in 1891. For the first time, most of the imperial Habsburg collections were housed under one roof, the monumental building itself being conceived as a memorial to Habsburg patronage. The architects Gottfried Semper (1803-1879) and Karl von Hasenauer (1833-1894) designed the building in the style of the Italian Renaissance, establishing in the spirit of Historicism a link with an epoch of especial significance for the arts and sciences.