The Pasqualati House, notable for being a residence of Ludwig van Beethoven, is located in

the 1st district of Vienna's Inner City, on the corner of Mölker Bastei [de] 8 and
Schreyvogelgasse [de] 16, in an exposed position on the ramp of the former town
fortifications. The building, completed in 1797 and home to the composer on several
occasions, houses a Beethoven museum in an apartment neighbouring the one he regularly
occupied.

The house was built in 1797 by Peter Mollner [de] for Empress Maria Theresa's personal
physician, Joseph Benedikt, Baron Pasqualati von Osterberg (1733-1799), by joining two
smaller residences and augmenting these to produce the present stately apartment block.
One of the older buildings housed a stonemason's workshop, while the other numbered
among its tenants Count Leander Anguissola [de], imperial chief engineer, and Johann
Jakob Marinoni [de], a court mathematician, who together published a plan of Vienna while
holding teaching posts at the Military Engineering Academy, under whose auspices they
gave lectures in the house. In 1770 the composers Florian Gassmann and his student
Antonio Salieri lived in one of these smaller residences, known then as the “Schmidisches
Haus.”

Joseph Benedikt's son, Johann Baptiste, Baron Pasqualati von Osterberg (1777-1830)
inherited the house, together with his three siblings, on his father's death. He became a
patron of Beethoven, whom he allowed to live in his house for a total of eight years. Between
1804 and 1815, Beethoven twice took up residence in the present building (1804–08 and
1810–14), with some of his most important works, including the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies,
Für Elise, the Archduke Trio and his only opera, Fidelio, being composed at the Pasqualati
House. Bettina Brentano visited Beethoven there during his second stay and described the
meeting in her book Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde. Between 1991 and c. 2000, the
musicological series Vom Pasqualati Haus was published from the building. From 1947, the
Adalbert Stifter Museum was located in three rooms of the Pasqualati House.[citation
needed]

" ...(Pasqualati House) owned up to its tainted past, noting that the Nazis had evicted the
Jewish family that lived there to create the museum, and some were killed in Auschwitz."

The building is a block corner house in the classicist style. At the corner is the Pasqualati
coat of arms. The rectangular portal with builder's inscription leads into a driveway and a
courtyard with wrought iron lantern and fountain. The spiral staircase, made from
Kaisersteinbruch [de] stone, still has its original wrought-iron railings and lattice doors. Roof
truss and cellar vault also date from the period of original construction. In the basement are
to be found remains of the city fortifications. A plaque commemorates Ludwig van
Beethoven.

An apartment on the 4th floor hosts a memorial designed in 1997 by Elsa Prochazka. On
display are the portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Willibrord Mähler from 1804/05 and the 1814
portrait of Count Andrey Razumovsky by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder. Items from
Beethoven's possessions, several facsimiles and illustrations from the life and work of the
composer, as well as two audio stations with Beethoven's music complete the exhibit. Since
Beethoven's actual flat in the north section of the fourth floor has a tenant, the next-door flat
is on show as the Beethoven museum. The Pasqualati House memorial belongs to the
Vienna Museum.