Located on a narrow street at Himmelpfortgasse 8, the palace was used as the winter residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, who spent his summers at the Belvedere.

In 1695, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach won the prestigious and lucrative contract to build a palace at this location for the prince.

The large portal with side reliefs—Hercules fighting the giant Antaeus on the left, and Aeneas saving his father from burning Troy on the right—was sculpted from Kaiserstein by Lorenzo Mattielli.

After her marriage to Joseph Friedrich von Sachsen-Hildburghausen on 17 April 1738—he was a military commander and administrator for the Habsburgs—she put all of Prince Eugene's properties up for auction.

The ceiling painting by the French painter Ludovico Dorigny was damaged, but was eventually restored by experts from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

On 18 October 2013, the main rooms of the Winter Palace state apartments became accessible to the public as the Belvedere's new exhibition venue in Vienna's Innere Stadt.

[7] The Winter Palace has a twelve-bay flat Baroque façade with three portals, each given double corbels that support a balcony and decorated balustrade.

[5] In place of standard columns or pillars, Fischer von Erlach designed bas-reliefs depicting military scenes from ancient mythology—Hercules fighting the giant Antaeus on the left, and Aeneas saving his father Anchises from burning Troy on the right.