This palace in front of you started with a love match. Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen married Maria Christina in 1766. She was Maria Theresa's favorite daughter, the only one of 16 children allowed to choose her own husband. Her sisters never forgave her.
The couple shared a passion for art. Albert began collecting drawings and prints in Brussels, where he governed the Austrian Netherlands. By the time he moved to this palace in 1794, he owned 14,000 drawings and 200,000 prints. Works by Dürer, Michelangelo, Rembrandt. The palace itself sits on top of the Augustinian Bastion, one of the last surviving sections of Vienna's old city fortifications.
When the French Revolution reached the Austrian Netherlands in 1792, Albert and Maria Christina had to flee. They shipped their art collection ahead by sea. One ship sank. Nobody knows which masterpieces went down with it.
Maria Christina died here in 1798. Albert lived another 24 years in this palace, still adding to the collection. When he died in 1822, the Albertina held one of the largest graphic art collections on earth. The palace and collection you see were built on one woman's rare freedom to choose love over duty.
Sources. Story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertina, https://www.albertina.at/en/ Photos: C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
