Museum im Mönchsberg

1989 Hans Hollein’s project was the winner of an international invited competition for a museum in the Mönchsberg—a large rock formation that is one of the principal features in the city of Salzburg. The singular feature of his design is the fact that the proposed museum is enclosed entirely within the volume of the Mönchsberg rock on three levels. It has no visible façade. The gallery spaces on the upper two levels are covered by a vast system of skylights that offer light to the subterranean museum. The museum is reached through the courtyard of a medieval hospital, at the same level as the main street of historic Salzburg, adjacent to the Festspielhaus.Building inside the rock allows free, a–tectonic expansion in all directions.The project was continued as a feasibility study for a “Salzburg Guggenheim” and, after optimizing the program in a transformed, reduced condition, was being discussed as a location for cooperation between Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, Guggenheim Museum, New York and Eremitage, Sankt Petersburg.