The Palais Equitable is an office building in Stock-im-Eisen-Platz (now part of Stephansplatz) in the

Innere Stadt The Innere Stadt (; ; "Inner City") is the 1st municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the I ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, that was built in the 19th century for

The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States Equitable Holdings, Inc. (formerly The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, and also known as The Equitable) is an American financial services and insurance company that was founded in ...

and that incorporates a medieval nail-tree (the Stock im Eisen) on one exterior corner. The building is on the site of five small

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

buildings that were demolished between 1856 and 1886, partly in order to expand

Kärntner Straße The Kärntner Straße (English: Carinthian Street) is one of the most famous streets in the center of Vienna. It begins near the Vienna Ring Road on Karlsplatz, leading past the Vienna State Opera and north to Stephansplatz, Vienna, Stephanspla ...

. It was designed by Andreas Streit and constructed between 1887 and 1891. The Palais Equitable has a richly detailed

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

featuring American eagles. The Stock im Eisen, enclosed in glass, is in a niche on the Kärntner Straße corner of the building, and bronze reliefs by Rudolf Weyr on the main doors depict its history. The remainder of the ornamentation is by

Viktor Oskar Tilgner Viktor Oskar Tilgner (25 October 1844 in Pressburg – 16 April 1896 in Vienna) was an Austrian sculptor and medailleur. Life He was the son of Captain Carl Tilgner. The family moved to Vienna when he was a child. His talent was recogni ...

and Johann Schindler. The interior is also extremely sumptuous: marble from

Hallein Hallein () is a historic town in the Austrian state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg. It is the capital of Hallein (district), Hallein district. Geography The town is located in the ''Tennengau'' region south of the City of Salzburg, stretching alo ...

and granite from

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

were used for the dramatic stairway and the vestibule, and the glass-covered interior courtyard is completely clad in tile and

maiolica Maiolica is tin-glazed pottery decorated in colours on a white background. The most renowned Italian maiolica is from the Renaissance period. These works were known as ''istoriato'' wares ("painted with stories") when depicting historical and ...

. (The stairway was apparently intended to be adaptable for access to a future subway.) A painting on the ceiling of the lobby and the

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ornamentation on the second floor are by Julius Victor Berger. Wilhelm Beck & Söhne, providers of uniforms to the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

, had its shop in the building, and the United States consulate was located there. The Palais Equitable was damaged in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

but was restored in 1949. The entrance area was renovated by Rüdiger Lainer in 1997. Today the building houses offices of various companies and organizations including the Austrian division of

Sal. Oppenheim Sal. Oppenheim was a German private banking, private bank founded in 1789 and headquartered in Cologne, Germany. It provided asset management solutions for wealthy individual clients and institutional investors. In 2009, the bank became a subsidia ...

, and a retail outlet for

Augarten Porcelain __NOTOC__ The Vienna Porcelain Manufactory Augarten (German: ''Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur Augarten'') is a porcelain manufactory located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1718 and is one of the oldest porcelain manufacturers in Europe. The ...

."Charming Inner Courtyards - Hof in German"
, MyMagicalVienna.com (picture of the staircase).

References

Sources

* Eve Marie Young. ''Art and Enterprise: The 19th Century Administrative Buildings of a U.S. Life Insurance Company: With Particular Consideration of the Vienna, Austria, building known as "zum Stock in Eisen"''. Dissertation,

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, 1991

External links

Palais Equitable
at Nicolas Janberg's Structurae

at Planet Vienna
360° panorama of Stephansplatz
at Panoramic Earth {{coord, 48, 12, 29, N, 16, 22, 18, E, region:AT-9_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Office buildings in Vienna Commercial buildings completed in 1891 Buildings and structures in Innere Stadt Historicist architecture in Austria