Introduction to the Blue Staircase: The Blue Staircase was originally a restaurant in the hunting palace of Joseph I. When Maria Theresa expanded the palace in 1745, the architect Nicholas Si changed this place into a staircase.
On the ceiling at the top of the stairs is a fresco depicting Joseph I as a virtuous hero, created by Sebastiano Ricci, a painter of the Venetian school of Italian Baroque art.