Programme

The palace was constructed during an extremely critical period in history: Confessional debates and the collapse of the old political order marked this highly confusing and turbulent historical era, which was characterised by deep upheavals and reforms.

The discovery of the New World meant that the frontiers of the previously overseeable world had shifted and greatly expanded. Copernicus had postulated heliocentrism and the sacred veil of illusion of the world being the centre of the cosmos had since fallen. After 1582 the Gregorian calendar reform introduced the consolidation of both the ecclesiastical and secular calendar in Europe. And the Reformation that followed signified the loss of the final, most-cherished security; the protection of the only true religion.

The period around 1600 was marked by religious fears, dissatisfaction and deep feelings of helplessness. Everywhere people were searching for new explanations, structures and rules to describe the way the universe worked and how it was created. The progress of modern new sciences did, however, still often overlap with the many ancient and irrational ideas. The yearning for universal knowledge enabling people to fathom out the secrets of the world that remained hidden to rational thinking caused occult sciences to flourish, and astronomy, astrology, kabbalah and alchemy were extremely popular pastimes in this historical period.

Many mathematicians and astronomers combined their scientific findings with mystical, philosophical argumentations on the "Harmony of the World", which joins heaven and earth with mutual, calculable rules. In the whole of Europe the search for a harmonious new order resulted in a variety of utopian states and social structures, which were to set the stage for future political activity.

Prince Eggenberg created a political utopia in his new residence - a symbolic world where all knowledge, elements and powers of the universe should have an allegorical place. And the symbolism of his creation is especially significant; the intellectual and aesthetic concept of the architecture was to become a subject of admiration and an expression of the dignity and erudition of its builder and owner.

As with all ideal states described in literature, Eggenberg is also situated on an "island", which is separated from the rest of the world by the symbolic waters of the moat. Created as a copy of the universe, everything is integrated into the concept of cosmic harmony. The corners of the palace face in each of the four cardinal directions so that the sun, which rises in the East, moves across the palace throughout the day like a huge sundial and each façade is lit up by it during a certain time of the day. In addition to the four wind directions, this is also reminiscent of the four times of the day and the sides of the palace correspond to morning, midday, evening and night. The disposition of the rooms also has to be understood as a ingenious programme. The palace is created to reflect a strong hierarchical order, which goes from everyday life on the ground floor to the ideal world of ideas on the uppermost floor. The core of the palace is the central tower, which rises above the whole palace and which, together with fountain grotto and chapel, with cave and tower, leads into an unknown world of alchemistic concepts intended both for meditation and decoding.

The architectural programme of the palace is based on strict number symbolism. The calendar theme was extremely topical: Eggenberg Palace was built during the period of the great calendar dispute, which had started at the beginning of the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582 and not yet come to an end. The architecture of the palace is an expression of the values of the time.

There are 365 outside windows, which correspond to the days of the year. Each floor consists of 31 rooms, which correspond to the days of the longest months. Three of them, which lie exactly on the middle axis - the Planetary Room, chapel and theatre (which has now been converted into the palace church) - are rooms with a special significance. If they are subtracted from the complete set of 31 rooms, you get 30, 29 and 28, i.e. all possible variants of the number of days in the months of the year. The 24 hours of the day correspond to the circle of 24 state rooms, 12 on each side of the symmetrical axis, which separates the palace into two corresponding halves, 12 hours for the day and 12 hours for the night. The 24 rooms have a total of 52 windows for the weeks or the amount of Sundays in the year. Adding the 8 windows in the Planetary Room, you get the number 60 which stands for the number of seconds or minutes. There are even 52 doors in the Bel Étage. In the Planetary Room itself, you can also find the 7 days of the week and the 12 months of the year. And even the park wall has 12 doors opening towards the outside, seven of which face towards the city.