Wien, Heiligenstadt, Pfarrplatz 2, Wohnung von Ludwig van Beethoven - Aquarell von Gottfried Bürklein

The Nuremberg artist Gottfried Bürklein (1845-1908) produced an early series of representations showing Beethoven"s houses. As early as 1867/68 he painted a series of watercolours of houses connected with Beethoven. His rendering of the Beethoven house at the Pfarrplatz in Heiligenstadt (near Vienna) numbers amongst them.

Although Beethoven"s stay here only lasted several weeks and none of his compositions is connected with the house, the building at Pfarrplatz 2 has been one of the most popular of Beethoven"s Viennese houses with artists and photographers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This has, of course, to do with the picturesque appearance of this seventeenth-century farmhouse, which is for the most part still in its original condition. Its two large wings, covered with a saddle roof, are arranged around a spacious inner courtyard with a large entrance facing towards the street. Pfarrplatz, itself very picturesque and one of the most beautiful of the old Viennese squares, has also inspired various artists. (S.B.)