The Vienna Academy of Fine Arts was founded in 1692 as the private academy of the Emperor Leopold I Peter Strudel, making it the oldest art academy in Central Europe. After Strudel's death in 1714, the academy was temporarily closed, but in 1726 Emperor Charles VI reopened it. In 1872 the Academy received the status of a higher educational institution. Since 1876, the Academy has occupied a building designed by architect Theophilus Hansen in the style of the Italian Renaissance. In the art gallery, located on the second floor of the west wing, there is an impressive collection of paintings from the XIV century.→