ENGEL, Josef Franz
(b. ca. 1776, Wien, d. 1827, Wien)

Biography

Austrian architect. Together with Joseph Hardtmuth and Joseph Kornhäusel, he was the court architect to the princes of Liechtenstein. They created an architecture of follies, pavilions, miniature palaces and all the other accoutrements of an English garden in Feldsberg (Valtice) and Eisgrub (Lednice) in Moravia.

Engel served the family of the Prince of Liechtenstein in Moravia for many years, before entering employment with the Esterházy family in Hungary, where he was responsible for works on the family mausoleum in Ganna and the family mansion in Csákvár, both designed by Charles Moreau (1758-1841). Engel was greatly influenced by the geometrical monumentality of Moreau's architecture, as evinced by his work in Pannonhalma, where the library was constructed according to his concept in 1824-26.