|
His gaze wandered up high walls and he saw an island - gray, self-contained, and armed - lying there while the city's speed rushed blindly past it.
- Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities Enmeshed in the southwest corner of the Innere Stadt, the Hofburg (Court Palace) is a real hotchpotch of a place, with no natural centre, no symmetry and no obvious main entrance. Its name is synonymous with the Habsburgs, the dynasty which, at its zenith, ruled a vast multinational empire, stretching the length and breadth of Europe. Nowadays, apart from the tiny proportion that has been retained as the seat of the Austrian president, the palace has been taken over by various state organizations, museums and, more prosaically, a conference centre. Two of Vienna's most famous attractions keep the Hofburg at the top of most visitors' agendas: the Wiener Sangerknaben (Vienna Boys' Choir), who perform regularly in the Burgkapelle, and the Spanische Reitschule (Spanish Riding School), who trot their stuff in the Winter Reitschule. Getting to see either of them takes time and money, however, which you might well decide you'd be better off spending elsewhere. The tourist office leaflet, Spanische Reitschule/Wiener Sangerknaben , explains the intricate schedules of both institutions. The other chief sights are the dull Kaiserappartements , where the Emperor Franz-Josef I (1848-1916) and his wife Elisabeth lived and worked, the Schatzkammer , with its superb collection of crown jewels, and the Prunksaal , Fischer von Erlach's richly decorated Baroque library. The palace also boasts several excellent museums and galleries: the Albertina , home to one of the world's great graphics collections; several departments of the Kunsthistorisches Museum - the Hofjagd- und Rustkammer (Court Hunting and Arms Collection), the Sammlung alte Musikinstrumente (Collection of Early Musical Instruments) and the Ephesos Museum (Ephesus Museum); and the Museum fur Volkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology).
TOURISTFRANCIS REIGHLEY says "HOFBURG
ALBERTINA
NATURALHISTORISHES MUSEUM
SCHLOSS SCHONBRUNN
WAGENBURG"
Your Tip for Hofburg
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Hofburg - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Hofburg - visit the main Hofburg forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Hofburg webguide section below! Thanks.
|
