The Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Glory) at the Museum of Military History in Vienna, Austria. Forming the architectonic centrepiece of the museum, this hall consists of altogether three halls connected by arcades, with the main hall vaulted by an impressive cupola of 26.5 metres in height.
The ornamental design of the hall was based on a draft by the Danish museum architect Theophil Hansen (1813-1891), The marble work on the walls and the coat of arms executed as inlays were accomplished by the stucco worker Hieronymus Moosbrugger {1808- 1858].
The floor mosaic was executed by the Viennese marbling company Odorico. Parts of the original can still be admired along the window front. Altogether 43 tablets adorning the walls of the Hall of Glory are made from red marble and primarily commemorate the officers of the Imperial Army [from „Colonel” upwards] who were killed in the battlefield between the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War {1618] and the end of World War 1.
Apart from the tablets, mounted as early as in 1890, six further tablets were hung up during the inter-war period, commemorating the officers of the Royal Imperial Army killed in the Great War. What gives the Hall its characteristic look, is certainly its extraordinarily rich ornamentati-on. 45 ceiling frescos adorn the cupola, the cupola cornice, the pendentives as well as the wall arches and transverse arches. They were created by historical and genre painter Carl (von] Blaas [1815-1894] between 1858 and 1871. Apart from four allegoric figures in the cupola cornice, the frescos depict scenes from victorious battles of the Imperial Army as well as prominent episodes of military history. These scenes include the legendary storming of Melk by Leopold I, first margrave of the Babenberg dynasty, the era of the Thirty Years’ War, the Turkish Wars fought by Prince Eugene of Savoy, the era of Maria Theresa and the Napoleonic Wars as well as the Battle of Novara on 4 March 1849 against Sardinia-Piemont.
