Palais Ferstel
Austria
Start with the name, because it is not quite honest. What everyone now calls Palais Ferstel, on the corner of Herrengasse and Freyung in Vienna's 1st District, was never a palace at all. Its official name was the Bank and Stock Exchange Building, and it was built between 1856 and 1860 by Heinrich Ferstel for the privileged Austrian National Bank. The grander title only stuck after a renovation that ran from 1975 to 1982, by which point the building was in private hands. So as you walk in, you are entering a working building of commerce that later borrowed an aristocratic name.
- Written with AI from the Wikipedia article Palais Ferstel (de.wikipedia.org); facts only from there
- Show on OpenStreetMap
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