The ensemble was built in the early eighteenth century by the famous Baroque architect, Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, and comprises the Upper and Lower Belvedere, with the Orangery and Palace Stables, as well as extensive gardens.

The Belvedere houses what was the first public museum in Austria, today containing one of the greatest collections of Austrian art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day,complemented by the works of international artists.

In March of 1950, a major fire broke out in the “Gold Cabinet” in the north-eastern corner pavilion of the Upper Belvedere, which had already been damaged by bombing during World War II [3] Some of the rooms and artworks destroyed in that fire were depicted by artists who had painted and/or photographed the interior and its decor earlier in the 20th century, such as the painter Josef Pögl (1867-1956) whose work is currently displayed as part of the Imperial Treasury Collection.

[4][5] In 1955, after years of rebuilding and renovation, the Upper Belvedere was reopened to the public, showing works by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and other major Austrian artists.

The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is today one of the Austrian Federal Museums (Bundesmuseen) and since 2000 has been a vollrechtsfähige "wissenschaftliche Anstalt" (a legally independent public research/scientific institution).