IRAK DIE WIEGE DER ZIVILISATION

LE MONDE IRAQ
Awoken from its sleeping beauty sleep
Before, 2008 … … and after, in 2014.
The time-honored Ringstraßen Palais
Larisch-Mönnich is the home of the
Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in
Vienna. After two years of renovation
work, the building has now been
returned to its original splendour.
Text: Petra Stix
PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF IRAQ, RALPH MANFREDA (1)
Palais Larisch-Mönnich, near the Kursalon
Hü bner in the City Park of Vienna, has belonged
to the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq
since the 1950s. The current Ambassador of Iraq,
Surood R. Najib, is a great lover of the arts and culture,
and he was deeply saddened to see the sorry
state of the once noble residence; the interior furnishings
and decoration had been almost totally destroyed,
and the rooms on the bottom floor were flooded.
All in all, the building was a sad relic of Austria’s
dark past, and of the destiny that the Palais shared
with other residences of the nobility which also fell
victim to the devastations of the war.
Historical significance
The Palais was originally built in 1867 and 1868
according to the plans of the famous Austrian architects
August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard
van der Nü ll (also responsible – amongst other
things – for building the Vienna State Opera). Palais
Larisch-Mönnich was the final piece of work by the
two architects, and eventually completed posthumously
by Karl Stattler. The building has been kept
in the style of the French Renaissance, its representative
character emphasised by the oriel tower, high bel
étage and broad central projecting risalits. It is one of
the most striking examples of grand residential homes
of the second half of the 19th century, and one of
the few palais of the old feudal type in Vienna’s Ringstraße
architecture to have been built to allow a single
family to hold court. Historically, it is a highly significant
construction which would have been the
backdrop to many a grand and splendid festival and
banquet at that time, to which members of the imperial
family were invited again and again.
The Austrian landowner and Finance Minister Johann,
Count Larisch von Mönnich, commissioned
the building of the Palais. He originally came from a
wealthy family of Prussian-Austrian nobility. Marie
Louise von Larisch-Wallersee, a niece and close confidante
of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also frequented
the beautiful Palais on the Ringstraße on a
regular basis. Marie Louise was the illegitimate child
of Duke Ludwig von Bayern and actress Henriette
Mendel – a relationship which served to generate
much excitement in aristocratic circles at the time.
Like her mother, she was not admitted to the nobility
until many years later.
Renovation work
It took a total of two years and countless hours of
painstaking precision work for the Palais to be restored
to be its original splendour. Ambassador Najib’s
aim was for the grand residence for nobility to be
returned the original using original drafts and images.
Even individual items of furniture, such as
chairs, mirrors, tables and two Bösendorfer pianos,
were retained and completely renovated. Today,
some of the oldest chandeliers in Austria are part of
the interior furnishings of the Embassy of Iraq in Vienna.
Ambassador Najib watched over the restoration
work with an eagle eye. “The constructors went
mad with me,” he told Cercle Diplomatique with a
twinkle in his eye. But he was absolutely right to do
so, because the results are impressive. The Embassy
of Iraq has made a significant contribution to the
preservation of a valuable cultural treasure – for
which Austria can only say “Thank you”.
The Embassy of Iraq has
made a significant
contribution to the
preservation of valuable
cultural treasures.
36 Cercle Diplomatique 1/2015
Cercle Diplomatique 1/2015
37