Prince Eugene's Belvedere

The Upper Belvedere in Vienna, 28 May 2026

The high reputation of Prince Eugene [of Savoy] has endured over the centuries, as has his personal stamp on Vienna with his summer and winter residences being two baroque jewels of the city. His city palais on the Himmelpfortgasse was built by both Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lukas von Hildebrand. The building, which has a twelve-bay baroque façade, also has an exquisite interior, including an extraordinary staircase, stone sculptures and frescoes. The building currently hosts the Austrian Finance Ministry.

Eugene's most famous residence was the Belvedere, a historic complex of two palaces and beautiful baroque gardens, just outside the city walls. Johann Lukas von Hildebrand designed and built the Lower and Upper Belvedere between 1712 and 1723. One of Europe's standout baroque landmarks, it is listed together with the rest of Vienna city centre as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Lower Belvedere, with its beautiful Hall of Mirrors, was the day. to-day summer home of Prince Eugene, while the Upper Belvedere was conceived with prestige and display in mind, positioned on a rise overlooking the middle of the capital with copper roofs. They were designed to resemble Turkish tents, an allusion to Eugene's victories over the Ottomans. The sumptuous grandeur of the interior includes Herculean figures supporting the vaulted ceiling of the Sala Terrena and the two-storey-high Marble Hall with its ornately painted ceiling.

The gardens between the Lower and Upper Belvedere are a baroque masterpiece in their own right and look down towards Fischer von Erlach's baroque Karlskirche, with its oversized flanking columns. Eugene had an intense interest in horticulture and nature, seeking out rarities and abnormalities. His menagerie was the second largest in Europe after that of King Louis XIV, numbering 43 species of mammals and 67 species of birds, including 'unheard of' species of the time. Eugene was also an avid collector of books and developed friendships with the leading international authors and thinkers of the age, including Gottfried Leibnitz, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles-Louis Montesquieu. More than 15,000 books formed part of a world-class collection together with hundreds of manuscripts and prints, described as follows by Rousseau: 'The Prince's library is very extensive and consists of exceptionally fine books beautifully bound. But what is more remarkable is that there is scarcely a book in it that the Prince has not read or at least looked through. It is difficult to believe that a man who almost alone carries such a public burden for all Europe, who is Field-Marshall and the Emperor's Prime Minister, can find the time to read almost as much as someone who has nothing else to do'

- Angus Robertson, The Crossroads of Civilisation: A History of Vienna, New York, 2022, p.37-8.

The freak of your imagination sparkles into view

Thursday music corner: Former Pixies bassist and Breeders frontwoman Kim Deal appeared on five Pixies albums from 1987 to 1991 and founded the Breeders in 1989. Growing up with her twin sister Kelley in Ohio, Deal was inspired by indie cassettes mailed by a friend in California, which inspired the sisters to form their own band. Having released six Breeders albums plus one by her side-project The Amps in 1995, in 2024 Deal released her first solo album, the self-produced Nobody Loves You More. Kim and Kelley Deal celebrated their 65th birthdays on 10 June 2026. 

Crystal Breath was the second single from Nobody Loves You More. Deal wrote the song as a tribute to Australian actor Rose Byrne, and it was originally intended for use as a TV theme.

Kim Deal - Crystal Breath (2024)

See also:

Music: Kim Deal - Coast (2024)

Music: Breeders - Cannonball (live, 2018)

Music: Pixies - Gigantic (live, 1988) 

Brassaï's Parisian night photography

Here is Brassaï himself, towards the end of his life [in a 1976 interview with Claude Bonnefoy], describing one of his night-time expeditions in the early 1930s: 'I used to spend whole nights beside the canal, waiting for the right moment to take the shot, or in other words for a little fog to soften the lights. Often the hirondelles, the policemen on bikes, seeing a man squatting down would stop and ask me: "What are you up to?" And I'd say: "I've come to take a photo." At two in the morning, that seemed like an odd thing to do. So, I'd have a couple of prints on me so I could show them what it was possible to achieve at night. Then the ones that liked taking pictures would ask me for advice. I explained to them that I had several exposure times - the "Gauloise exposure", in other words the time it took to smoke a Gauloise, and the "Boyard exposure", which was about twice as long. This airy description, long after the event in question, contrasts with remarks made by Brassaï during the 1930s when he referred to 'a period of endless experiments with developers and exposure times', which were probably closer to the truth. The table of exposure times, reproduced at the back of Camera in Paris, shows that far from being a mechanical and repetitive practice the calculations involved a number of parameters, including natural lighting conditions and supplementary light sources. The exposure time could be anything from a fraction of a second to ten minutes or longer: 1/50 of a second for a photograph taken using flash ('14 July, Place de la Bastille'; 'Parisian cats'), one minute without supplementary light ('A carriage in front of "Le Dôme""), ten minutes for a Seine embankment shrouded in fog, or a panoramic view taken from one of the towers of Notre-Dame.

- Sylvie Aubenas & Quentin Bajac, Brassaï: Paris Nocturne, London, 2013, p.196-98.

All I needed was the love you gave

Thursday music corner: The Flying Pickets are a British a capella vocal group formed in London in 1982 from a group of theatre actors. Taking their name from a union term for mobile strikers who join picket actions, the group was founded by Welsh actor / singer Brian Hibbard, and originally consisted of six members. 

The band had a huge British hit single at Christmas 1983 with their cover of Yazoo's Only You, which was the Christmas number one and topped the British singles charts for five weeks. This bested Yazoo's chart performance for the Vince Clarke-penned single, which reached number 2 in the UK charts in May 1982.

The Flying Pickets have released 13 albums, the first of which, Lost Boys, reached number 11 in the UK albums charts in 1984, and number 19 in Sweden. Their cover of Only You also topped the singles charts in West Germany and the Republic of Ireland, and hit the top five in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The band's follow-up single, the Van McCoy cover When You're Young & In Love, reached number 7 in the UK.

Flying Pickets - Only You (1983)

See also:

Music: Yazoo - Don't Go (1982)

Music: Flying Pickets - When You're Young & In Love (1984)

Music: Housemartins - Caravan of Love (1986)

It's a secular day and it will be even better tomorrow

Thursday music corner: Super Furry Animals are a Welsh indie-rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993, with Rhys Ifans as the original lead singer, who was soon replaced by Gruff Rhys when Ifans devoted his time to his acting career. The band have released nine albums between 1996 and 2009, with two certified gold albums and three certified silver. Their Rings Around the World album in 2001 was their most successful, reaching number 3 in the UK album charts. Super Furry Animals have released 26 singles, 18 of which reached the UK top 40; to date the most successful has been Northern Lites, which reached number 11 in 1999.

Inaugural Trams was the first single from the band's 2009 album Dark Days / Light Years. The spoken-word German phrases are delivered by then-Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy.

Super Furry Animals - Inaugural Trams (2009)  

See also:

Music: Super Furry Animals - Northern Lites (1999)

Music: Super Furry Animals & The Beatles - Peter Blake 2000 (sound collage, 2000) 

Music: Gruff Rhys - Loan Your Loneliness (2021)

Merely cannon fodder in the 19th Cavalry

Thursday music corner: Bonny Light Horseman are an American folk trio consisting of established singer-songwriters Anaïs Mitchell, Eric Johnson and Josh Kaufman. Formed in 2020, the band has released three albums: a self-titled 2020 debut, Rolling Golden Holy (2022) and Keep Me On Your Mind / See You Free (2024). All three albums have reached the top 20 of the UK Indie charts, and they have been nominated for two Grammy awards. The band takes its name from a Napoleonic-era traditional folk song.

Someone to Weep for Me was the fifth and final single released from Rolling Golden Holy. 

Bonny Light Horseman - Someone to Weep for Me (2022)

See also:

Music: Bonny Light Horseman - Deep in Love (2019)

Music: Bonny Light Horseman - Lover Take It Easy (2024)

Music: Bonny Light Horseman - I Know You Know (Yttling Jazz Remix) (2025)