https://hofburg.org Hofburg en https://hofburg.org/archduke-charles-monument-heldenplatz-vienna/ The horse is the reason everyone stops. It rears up so far that only its two hind hooves touch the pedestal, and nothing else holds it. When Anton Dominik Fernkorn unveiled it on Heldenplatz on 22 May 1860, it was hailed as the first monumental bronze statue anywhere supported at just two points. objects Heldenplatz Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/archduke-charles-monument-heldenplatz-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/archduke-ferdinand-ii-of-tyrol-armours-eagle-garniture-imperial-armoury/ A good part of the Imperial Armoury in the Neue Burg exists because of one man. Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol collected armour the way other princes collected paintings, and he collected his own as well: suits made for him as a teenager, as regent of Bohemia, as ruler of Tyrol and as a bridegroom. Several of them stand together in the Armoury today. objects Neue Burg Habsburgs Innsbruck Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/archduke-ferdinand-ii-of-tyrol-armours-eagle-garniture-imperial-armoury/ https://hofburg.org/augustinerkirche-vienna-habsburg-weddings-heart-crypt/ Most visitors walk past it. The Augustinian Church is built into the Hofburg on Josefsplatz, next to the State Hall of the library, and from the outside it's a plain Gothic front squeezed between palace wings. It was the Habsburg court's parish church from 1634 to 1918, and it's where the family got married. Habsburgs Maria Theresa Sisi Franz Joseph Josefsplatz music Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/augustinerkirche-vienna-habsburg-weddings-heart-crypt/ https://hofburg.org/austrian-national-library-state-hall-prunksaal-vienna/ Plenty of palaces have a library. The Hofburg has a library hall nearly 80 metres long, all shelving, galleries and painted ceiling, built so an emperor could show Europe that Vienna was a capital of learning as well as of armies. Josefsplatz museums architecture Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/austrian-national-library-state-hall-prunksaal-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/charles-vi-hercules-musarum-statue-state-hall-vienna/ Walk to the middle of the State Hall of the Austrian National Library and you're standing in front of the man who paid for it. Emperor Charles VI stands on a pedestal under the dome, larger than life, in white marble, presented as Hercules Musarum, the Hercules of the Muses. objects Josefsplatz Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/charles-vi-hercules-musarum-statue-state-hall-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/coronelli-globes-state-hall-austrian-national-library/ Under the dome of the State Hall, around the marble emperor in the middle, stand four big globes. Most visitors give them a glance on the way to the frescoes. They're worth longer. They were made by Vincenzo Coronelli, the Venetian friar whose globes were sought by courts across Europe, and each is 110 centimetres across. objects Josefsplatz museums Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/coronelli-globes-state-hall-austrian-national-library/ https://hofburg.org/emerald-vessel-imperial-treasury-vienna-dionysio-miseroni-1641/ It's the size of a large fist, 10.9 centimetres tall. In the Treasury's jewels room it sits alone in a dark case, lit from above, and it glows. It is one emerald, hollowed out into a small pot with a lid, and the Imperial Treasury counts it among the largest emeralds in the world. objects Habsburgs Schweizerhof Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/emerald-vessel-imperial-treasury-vienna-dionysio-miseroni-1641/ https://hofburg.org/emperor-franz-monument-in-der-burg-hofburg/ In the middle of the Hofburg's inner courtyard, In der Burg, an emperor in Roman dress stands on a tall pillar with his right arm stretched out over the square. Four bronze women sit round his feet. Most people walk past him on the way from the Michaelertor to the Sisi Museum or the Swiss Gate without looking up. objects Habsburgs history Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/emperor-franz-monument-in-der-burg-hofburg/ https://hofburg.org/golden-fleece-herald-potence-chain-of-arms-imperial-treasury/ Most of the Order of the Golden Fleece's treasure is about the knights. This piece belonged to the man who kept track of them. It's the potence, the chain of arms worn by the Order's chief herald, and it was built so that he carried the coat of arms of every living knight around his shoulders. objects Habsburgs Schweizerhof Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/golden-fleece-herald-potence-chain-of-arms-imperial-treasury/ https://hofburg.org/gothic-armour-maximilian-i-imperial-armoury-vienna/ Late Gothic armour is the armour people picture when they think of a knight: slim, pointed, ridged like folded cloth, the steel following the line of a fashionable body rather than hiding it. One of the finest examples anywhere stands in the Imperial Armoury in Vienna, and for most of its life it carried the wrong name. objects Neue Burg Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/gothic-armour-maximilian-i-imperial-armoury-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/heldenplatz-vienna-history-1938-kaiserforum/ Heldenplatz is the big open square on the Ring side of the Hofburg: lawns, two bronze horsemen, the curved front of the Neue Burg, and a long view across to the Burgtheater and City Hall. It looks finished. It isn't. It's half of a plan the empire never completed, on ground Napoleon cleared. Heldenplatz Neue Burg history Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/heldenplatz-vienna-history-1938-kaiserforum/ https://hofburg.org/historic-cafes-near-hofburg-demel-sacher-mozart-palmenhaus/ The court is gone, but the places that fed it are still open. Within ten minutes' walk of the Hofburg are a confectioner that held the imperial warrant, a hotel café built on the site of a court theatre, and a palm house the emperor used for his own leisure. You can sit in most of them for the price of a coffee and a slice of cake. cafés Michaelerplatz history Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/historic-cafes-near-hofburg-demel-sacher-mozart-palmenhaus/ https://hofburg.org/hofburg-chapel-vienna-boys-choir-sunday-mass/ Every Sunday from late September to late June, at 9:15, the Vienna Boys' Choir sings Mass in the Hofburg's own chapel. It's not a concert. It's a Catholic liturgy that happens to have one of the world's best-known choirs in the gallery, together with members of the Vienna State Opera orchestra and chorus. That's the point, and it's also why so many visitors leave disappointed: in most seats you hear the boys and never see them. music Schweizerhof visiting Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/hofburg-chapel-vienna-boys-choir-sunday-mass/ https://hofburg.org/hofburg-vienna-getting-there-entrances/ The Hofburg has no single front door. It's a block of 19 courtyards with gates on every side, and the museums inside each have their own entrance, ticket desk and opening days. The most common mistake is to queue at the wrong one. visiting Michaelerplatz Heldenplatz Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/hofburg-vienna-getting-there-entrances/ https://hofburg.org/hofburg-vienna-history-wings-guide/ The Hofburg isn't a palace in the way Schönbrunn or Versailles is. Nobody designed it. It grew, wing by wing, for more than six hundred years, each ruler adding what he or she needed in the style of the day, and nobody ever went back to make it match. Walk from Michaelerplatz to Heldenplatz and you pass through Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and the last pomp of the 1900s in about ten minutes. Habsburgs architecture history Michaelerplatz Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/hofburg-vienna-history-wings-guide/ https://hofburg.org/imperial-armoury-vienna-hofjagd-und-ruestkammer-neue-burg/ Most visitors to the Neue Burg come for the Weltmuseum and walk past the stairs to the Imperial Armoury. That's a mistake. Upstairs is one of the leading collections of arms and armour in the world, and the museum calls it the best-documented dynastic armoury in the Western world. It is also, on most days, almost empty. Neue Burg museums Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/imperial-armoury-vienna-hofjagd-und-ruestkammer-neue-burg/ https://hofburg.org/imperial-baptism-ewer-and-basin-1571-imperial-treasury/ For about three hundred years, when a Habsburg baby was christened, the water came out of this ewer and fell into this basin. Together they weigh about ten and a half kilos of gold. They weren't made for baptisms at all. objects Habsburgs Schweizerhof Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/imperial-baptism-ewer-and-basin-1571-imperial-treasury/ https://hofburg.org/imperial-crown-of-austria-rudolf-ii-1602/ Most crowns are made for a coronation. This one never saw one. Rudolf II had it made in Prague in 1602 to wear when the real imperial crown was out of reach, and two centuries later it became the crown of an empire that didn't exist when it was made. objects Habsburgs Schweizerhof Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/imperial-crown-of-austria-rudolf-ii-1602/ https://hofburg.org/imperial-treasury-vienna-crowns-holy-lance-tickets/ If you see one thing in the Hofburg, make it the Treasury. It's small, about twenty rooms, and it holds the objects that made a Habsburg an emperor: two imperial crowns, the orb and sceptre, the coronation robes, and relics the dynasty treated as proof that God was on its side. Schweizerhof Habsburgs museums Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/imperial-treasury-vienna-crowns-holy-lance-tickets/ https://hofburg.org/innsbruck-hofburg-giant-hall-maria-theresa-hofkirche/ Vienna's Hofburg gets the crowds, but the Habsburgs had a second Hofburg in Innsbruck, and it holds one of the saddest stories in the family. It's smaller, easier to see in a morning, and it comes with the best tomb in Austria next door. Innsbruck Maria Theresa Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/innsbruck-hofburg-giant-hall-maria-theresa-hofkirche/ https://hofburg.org/jewelled-flower-bouquets-imperial-treasury-vienna/ Among the crowns and regalia of the Imperial Treasury stand two small vases of flowers that will never wilt. Every petal is gold, enamel or a cut stone: diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and hyacinth, gathered into two matching bouquets about a quarter of a metre high. objects Habsburgs Schweizerhof Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/jewelled-flower-bouquets-imperial-treasury-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/joseph-ii-equestrian-statue-josefsplatz-vienna/ Josefsplatz is one of the most complete Baroque squares in Vienna: the white front of the court library on one side, palace wings on two more, and in the middle a bronze emperor on horseback with his right hand raised. He's Joseph II, Maria Theresa's eldest son, the reforming emperor who wanted to change everything in ten years and almost did. objects Josefsplatz Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/joseph-ii-equestrian-statue-josefsplatz-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/leopoldine-wing-hofburg-maria-theresa-federal-president/ When Austria swears in a new government, the ceremony takes place in a Rococo room in the Hofburg called the Maria Theresa Room. It was once the state bedroom of Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis Stephen. Since 1946 it has been where the Federal President receives prime ministers, ambassadors and visiting heads of state. Maria Theresa history architecture Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/leopoldine-wing-hofburg-maria-theresa-federal-president/ https://hofburg.org/maximilian-of-mexico-relics-imperial-treasury-vienna/ Most of the Imperial Treasury is about power that lasted centuries. One case is about an empire that lasted three years. It holds the chains of two Mexican orders, three sceptres and a tortoiseshell walking cane, all that the Treasury keeps of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, Franz Joseph's younger brother, who was shot by a firing squad in 1867. objects Habsburgs Schweizerhof history Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/maximilian-of-mexico-relics-imperial-treasury-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/neue-burg-vienna-museums-weltmuseum-armoury-ephesos/ The Neue Burg was meant to be the grandest wing of the Hofburg, half of an imperial forum on Heldenplatz. The empire ended before it was used as a palace. Instead it filled up with museums and library rooms, and the museums behind its curved façade are quiet enough that you'll often have whole rooms to yourself. Neue Burg Heldenplatz museums Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/neue-burg-vienna-museums-weltmuseum-armoury-ephesos/ https://hofburg.org/prince-eugene-monument-heldenplatz-vienna/ Prince Eugene of Savoy rides in front of the Neue Burg on a rearing horse, baton in hand, facing Archduke Charles across Heldenplatz. It's the second of the square's two bronze horsemen and the sadder story. The sculptor who began it was too ill to finish it, or even to attend its unveiling. objects Heldenplatz Neue Burg Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/prince-eugene-monument-heldenplatz-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/sisi-museum-imperial-apartments-reopening-november-2026/ The most visited part of the Hofburg is in the middle of a makeover. On 19 November 2026 the Imperial Apartments, the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Silver Collection reopen as one continuous route, with about 700 square metres of extra space, twelve new rooms along Schauflergasse and five Rococo rooms that have never been open to the public. Sisi Franz Joseph museums Michaelerplatz visiting Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/sisi-museum-imperial-apartments-reopening-november-2026/ https://hofburg.org/skanderbeg-helmet-and-sword-imperial-armoury-vienna/ Look at the coat of arms of Albania and above the black double-headed eagle you'll see a helmet with a goat's head on top. The original of that helmet isn't in Tirana. It's in Vienna, in the Imperial Armoury in the Neue Burg, together with a sword, both credited for more than four centuries to Gjergj Kastrioti, called Skanderbeg, the Albanian lord who held off the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. objects Neue Burg history Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/skanderbeg-helmet-and-sword-imperial-armoury-vienna/ https://hofburg.org/spanish-riding-school-vienna-performance-morning-exercise-tours/ The Spanish Riding School is the oldest working part of the Hofburg. It's been training horses here since at least 20 September 1565, the date of the first document that mentions a riding place in the palace garden, where Josefsplatz is now. The same year work began on turning the Stallburg, a Renaissance palace finished in 1560 and never lived in, into the court stables. The Lipizzaner stallions still sleep there. Michaelerplatz visiting history Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/spanish-riding-school-vienna-performance-morning-exercise-tours/ https://hofburg.org/swiss-gate-schweizertor-hofburg-vienna-1552/ Walk into the courtyard In der Burg and turn towards the oldest part of the palace, and you're looking at the most photographed doorway in the Hofburg. The Swiss Gate is red and black and gold, set into a plain white wall, with a long Latin inscription over the arch and the Habsburg arms in the middle. It leads into the Schweizerhof, the medieval core of the palace, and to the Treasury and the court chapel behind it. objects Schweizerhof architecture Habsburgs Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/swiss-gate-schweizertor-hofburg-vienna-1552/ https://hofburg.org/tournament-armour-rennen-gestech-imperial-armoury-vienna/ In one long, marbled hall of the Imperial Armoury, knights sit on armoured horses in full tournament dress, plumes on their helmets and painted caparisons to the horses' knees. It looks like a single kind of event. It wasn't. Around 1500 the joust came in a dozen varieties, each with its own rules, lance and armour, and the court of Emperor Maximilian I developed several of them. objects Neue Burg Habsburgs history Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://hofburg.org/tournament-armour-rennen-gestech-imperial-armoury-vienna/