The Salzburg Museum of Modern Art “Rupertinum”, presenting visitors with innovative ideas in painting, sculpture, and design, opened in 1983 in one of the city's oldest buildings.
Rupertinum as an architectural structure is first mentioned in chronicles dating from 1350. Its construction lasted quite a long time and resulted in the appearance of an elegant building in the early Baroque style. Its location between the Franciscan Church and the Collegiate Church largely determined the building's functional purpose. From 1633, the seminary of the Archbishopric of Salzburg was located here.
In 1982, it was decided to renovate Rupertinum. The progressive architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser redesigned the facade, but failed to please the critics, so many decorative elements were removed and only a few years later, during a Hundertwasser exhibition, returned to their place.
Today Rupertinum is an ideal venue for exhibitions, primarily of painting and photography. For these purposes, another reconstruction was carried out in 1999.
Rupertinum is only a small part of the Museum of Modern Art, while the main exhibitions are located in a new modernist building on Mönchsberg Mountain.
