Eggenberger Allee 90The monumental Schloss Eggenberg, embedded in a spacious park, is the most important castle complex of Styria. As it is modeled on the Spanish Escorial it is at the same time an impressive representation building and an complex allegory of the universe.
Already in the 15th century, the wealthy Eggenberg dynasty owned a large estate in the west of the city of Graz which rose to new splendour around 1600 under Ruprecht von Eggenberg, "Conqueror of the Turks", and the diplomat Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, friend and First Minister of Emperor Ferdinand II. Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, who was awarded the title of Imperial Prince and installed as Govenor of Inner Austria, commissioned the court architect Giovanni Pietro de Pomis to convert the medieval building into an imperial residence.
In 2010, the significance of Schloss Eggenberg was recognised with an expansion to the listing of the Graz Historic Old Town among the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites.