Interior view
by CANEVALE, Isidore, Photo
Giuseppe Piermarini’s designs for the Josephinum in Vienna were thoroughly reworked by Canevale, especially in the interior, so that no trace of the Baroque survives. Used as an academy of medicine and surgery, Canevale planned the arrangement of space and ornamentation strictly according to utilitarian considerations. In the library, the ceiling is supported by simple cast-iron columns. Composed of three wings and separated from the street by a grille fence, the building is part of the General Hospital complex, which Joseph II based on similar buildings in Paris. It has been described as Vienna’s last Baroque building.
The photo shows the interior of the library.