Rococo Hall at Schaezlerpalais
In the 18th century, critics all over Europe used the term “Augsburg taste” as a synonym for German Rococo. European nobility desired the ornate Augsburg silver. Around 1735, some 30 000 people lived in Augsburg and between 260 and 275 of them were master gold and silversmiths. The “Schaezlerpalais” is one of Augsburg’s magnificent palaces which were built during the time of the Rococo. Located between the renaissance buildings on Maximilianstraße it is now a distinctive feature.
The banker and silver tradesman, Benedikt Adam Freiherr von Liebert (1731-1810) employed the royal architect, Albert von Lespilliez from Munich to create the palace, which was built from 1765 and 1770 and then named after von Liebert’s son-in-law. In 1958, Schaezler’s descendants presented the palace to the city as a gift. The palace’s rococo ball room is most impressive. Its decorative carvings, frescoes, wall mirrors and the ceiling painting “Der Handel verbindet die Erdteile” (Trade Unites the Continents) are quite magnificent. The artist, Gregorio Gugielmi (1714-1773), also made the ceiling painting in the hallway, showing Apollo, Mercury and the “seven free arts”. When Marie Antoinette, daughter of Austria’s empress Maria Theresia, was on her way to France to get married, and stopped in Augsburg, she danced in this ball room.
Like many houses on Maximilianstraße, “Schaezlerpalais” has a courtyard with arcades around it and a garden, in which there is a fountain of a mermaid as well as the marble statue of a dreaming woman, which is said to have been made by Ignaz Ingerl (1752-1800). Next to the garden wall, there are allegories carved into stone, made by Johann Michael Haff in 1807.
The first German baroque gallery was opened in “Schaezlerpalais”. Paintings by the great masters of German baroque art such as Johann Heinrich Schönfeld (1609-1762), Matthäus Günther (1705-1788) and Johann Evangelist Holzer (1709-1740) are on display. In addition, pieces from the collection of Karl and Magdalene Haberstock from 1958 include some baroque paintings from outside of Germany.
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