In 2025, Schloss Eggenberg will be transformed into the venue for the third STEIERMARK SCHAU. The UNESCO World Heritage Site and all the museums on site invite visitors to take an unadulterated look at the history of the palace and all its inhabitants.
A pavilion will also complete the show in 2025, translating the supposedly bygone world of the Baroque and its challenges into the present and drawing a line into the region and beyond the country's borders.
2025 marks the 400th anniversary of the decision of the first Prince of Eggenberg to expand the old family seat into a prestigious residence. This historic milestone provides the occasion to dedicate an exhibition to this house, which is extraordinary in every respect, with the aim of taking a new and unbiased look at the palace and all its inhabitants: The UNESCO World Heritage Site will be the focus of STEIERMARK SCHAU 2025, with the State Rooms and Planetary Hall forming the centerpiece and slipping back into their original role as part of the multimedia exhibition: they will become the stage for the staging of a princely family that managed to shape its failure into an eternal success story with the help of a work of art.
The Coin Cabinet takes on the role of treasurer and sheds light on the monetary and economic history of the 17th century as well as the monetary background against which the rise and fall of the Eggenberg dynasty took place. And finally, the Museum of Archaeology will invite visitors on a journey to 17th century Graz.
The people responsible for STEIERMARK SCHAU 2025 © Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek
Stage for a great world theater
The plans of the client Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg were as ambitious as he himself: He did not want to create a simple palace, but a royal residence. He created a complex intellectual edifice - a symbol of the fame and rank of a family that succeeded in becoming one of the first families in the empire. Construction of Schloss Eggenberg began in 1625 as a model of a new order, a change for the better. It was built in an era characterized by upheaval and chaos: war, epidemics and famine, religious conflict and climate crisis, hyper-inflation and national bankruptcy were accompanied by profound social and economic upheaval. The world view changes radically. Eggenberg becomes a distant mirror that also opens up other perspectives on our own time of crisis.
Schloss Eggenberg and its history can be read as a grand spectacle that takes place - accompanied by dangers and opportunities - in the midst of a time of crisis and change. The protagonists are members of a family of up-and-comers who wanted to become perfect rulers but failed to live up to their own expectations. This play tells of ambition and failure, of splendor and decay. The story is also about us. However, the production only came about thanks to the involvement of many other people, most of whom had to act behind the scenes. The exhibition also brings them in front of the curtain: the steward, the courtier and the chambermaid, the rentmaster with his eternally empty coffers, the personal beer, the mouth cook and the chambermaid.
Eggenberg will surprise all guests in 2025, even those who know the palace well.
To this end, the curatorial team led by director Paul Schuster has developed an innovative concept for the 24 state rooms with the award-winning content and exhibition designers from Studio Louter and OPERA Amsterdam. Precious international loans will be on display as well as works of art and testimonies from the former possessions of the Princes Eggenberg, who are returning to Graz for a short time after more than 300 years. They will provide a new insight into the life and significance of this princely court, which once stretched from southern Bohemia to the Adriatic.
Extensive historical research forms the basis for all the stories and themes of this exhibition. The current state of research on Eggenberg Palace and the Eggenberg family will also appear in new publications for the anniversary year.
The exhibition will also bring the former Eggenberg world back to life. Many seemingly lost compositions of the old court music with familiar or barely known names will be rediscovered, performed and recorded for the occasion.
Pavilion: Building bridges to the region and beyond
The pavilion is a central component of the STEIERMARK SCHAU. As in previous years, it provides new impetus and food for thought and reflects the themes of the show from a contemporary, artistic perspective.
In the upcoming edition, it combines the supposedly bygone world of the Baroque with the current challenges of the present and will consist of three mobile parts, which will be presented together at its preview in Vienna. One part will be on display at the Eggenberg site for the entire duration of the 2025 show, while the other parts will take the show to the region and beyond.
April to November 2025
