The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important graphic arts collections in the world with approximately 65,000 designs and approximately 1 million pressure graphic sheets.
Vienna's Albertina was erected on one of the last remaining section of the fortifications of Vienna, the Augustian Bastion. Originally, the Hofbauamt (Court Construction Office), which had been built in the second half of the 17th century, stood in that location. In 1745, it was refurbished by the director of the Hofbauamt, Emanuel Teles Count Silva-Tarouca [1], to become his palace. It was therefore also known as Palais Taroucca. The building was later taken over by Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen. He used it as his residence and later brought his collection there from Brussels, where he had acted as the governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. For that purpose, he had the building extended by Louis Montoyer. Since then, the palace has immediately bordered the Hofburg. The collection was expanded by Albert's successors.