Hofburg
The Habsburgs’ winter palace for six centuries, now the seat of Austria’s president.
Photo: C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 3.0 at, via Wikimedia Commons
The Hofburg grew over six centuries from a medieval castle into a city within the city: 18 wings, 19 courtyards and some 2,600 rooms. The Habsburgs ruled their empire from here until 1918.
Today the president of Austria has his offices here, beside museums of the imperial apartments, the treasury with the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Sisi Museum about Empress Elisabeth. Visit it in 3D ›
More in Vienna
St Stephen’s CathedralVienna’s Gothic cathedral, with its 136-metre south tower and a roof of glazed tiles in zigzags.
GrabenVienna’s grand shopping street on the line of the Roman ditch, with the Plague Column in the middle.
Plague ColumnThe Baroque column of clouds and angels put up after the plague of 1679.
MichaelerplatzThe round square at the Hofburg’s gate, where Roman ruins and Adolf Loos’ plain house face the palace.
Spanish Riding SchoolThe white Lipizzaner stallions dance in a Baroque riding hall inside the Hofburg.
State OperaOpened in 1869, the first great building on the Ringstraße and one of the world’s great opera houses.
AlbertinaA Habsburg palace with one of the world’s largest collections of prints and drawings, Dürer’s Hare among them.
BurgtheaterOne of the most important German-language theatres, on the Ringstraße, opposite the town hall.
RingstraßeThe grand boulevard round the old town, built where the city walls stood.
Kunsthistorisches MuseumThe Habsburgs’ art museum on Maria-Theresien-Platz, with the largest collection of Bruegel’s paintings in the world.
FiakerThe two-horse carriages that wait on Stephansplatz to drive you round the old town.
Coffee housesMarble tables, newspapers on wooden holders and a glass of water with every coffee.
SachertorteA rich chocolate cake with apricot jam, invented by Franz Sacher in 1832.