Bishop's Residence

The Episcopal Residence in Klagenfurt was built from 1769 to 1776 according to plans by the Viennese court architect Nikolaus von Pacassi and presumably revised around 1780 by the Viennese Baroque architect Franz Anton Hillebrand. Initially, Archduchess Marianne inhabited the building. Since 1789, the complex has been the seat of the Bishops of Gurk.

The palace is a two-story building around a horseshoe-shaped courtyard of honor. The facade is structured by paired pilasters. The nine-axis main front has a flat, gable-crowned central risalit. Above the wrought-iron Rococo gate to the courtyard of honor is the coat of arms of Cardinal Salm. The state rooms are located in the east wing. In the Neoclassical paneling of a corner room, 13 oil portraits of the Salm family painted by Georg Weikert are embedded.

The park behind the palace was laid out by Georg Till starting in 1776.

The chapel in the south-facing central wing is dedicated to Mater Dolorosa. The simple Empire-style hall was stripped of its architectural structure by a renovation in 1958. In place of the altar, there is a hollow-carved and bronze-framed copy of Raphael Donner's Gurk Pietà, created in 1801 by Johann Probst, flanked by statues of the disciple John and Mary Magdalene. On the north wall of the chapel are console statues of Saint Hemma and John the Baptist.