Belvedere Palace stands on a sloping site south of central Vienna, built between 1714 and 1723 as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of the most successful military commanders of his era, to a design by the architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. The complex consists of two separate Baroque palace buildings, the Upper Belvedere and the Lower Belvedere, connected by a formal terraced garden that descends between them, a layout intended to showcase Prince Eugene's wealth and military success to visiting dignitaries. After Eugene's death the palace passed to the Habsburg imperial family, and it was the site in 1955 of the signing of the Austrian State Treaty that restored Austria's full sovereignty after the Second World War. The Upper Belvedere today houses the Austrian Gallery, whose collection includes Gustav Klimt's painting The Kiss, one of the most visited artworks in Austria.
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