Savoysches Damenstift, Noble residence in Inner City District, Vienna, Austria.
Savoysches Damenstift is a three-story palace in Vienna's inner district featuring ten window bays across its facade. A lead statue of the Immaculata crowns its exterior and serves as a distinctive architectural accent.
The palace was created in 1688 by merging two older houses. In the 18th century it passed to Prince Thomas Emanuel of Savoy-Carignan, a nephew of Prince Eugene. His widow, Maria Theresia Antonia née Liechtenstein, made it by testament the seat of a noble secular ladies' foundation under the Liechtenstein majorat. The last regent was Countess Karoline Fünfkirchen, who died on 8 July 1980.
The palace became a secular noblewomen's foundation by the will of Maria Theresia Antonia of Liechtenstein, widow of Prince Thomas Emanuel of Savoy-Carignan, and remained under the care of the Liechtenstein majorat. The last regent was Countess Karoline Fünfkirchen, who died on 8 July 1980; no noblewomen live there today. The social-democratic minister Hertha Firnberg spent her old age here and died in the building in 1994.
The palace stands at Johannesgasse 15–17 in the Innere Stadt, a short walk from the Stephansplatz transport hub. The main staircase in the vestibule and the branched stairwell in the courtyard are cut from Kaiserstein stone quarried at Kaisersteinbruch. The building is still administered by the Liechtenstein majorat, so the interior is not generally open to visitors; the facade statue and the courtyard fountain are the parts to look for.
The courtyard holds the Widow of Sarepta Fountain, an early classical wall fountain created by the sculptors Johann Martin Fischer and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. This collaboration between the two artists remains a noteworthy part of the building's interior treasures.
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