The Belvedere is two palaces at either end of a formal garden that steps down a slope, built in the 1710s and 20s for Prince Eugene of Savoy — a Habsburg commander who spent his money on architecture and books. A belvedere is a place built for a view, and the point of the arrangement is that from the upper palace the garden falls away and the city sits at the bottom of it. Sphinxes, cascades and clipped hedges do the work in between. The garden was laid out to be walked through, so each terrace opens a new view rather than simply decorating the ground.
Since 1923 the Upper Belvedere has held the national collection, and one room in it draws most of the traffic. The Kiss is a square canvas, 180 centimetres on each side, painted in oil and gold leaf, and in person the gold is not flat: it is tooled, scratched and raised so that it moves as you do. Around it hang more Klimt than exists anywhere else, along with Schiele, Kokoschka and the Austrian nineteenth century. The garden below is worth the walk on its own.