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If the Karlskirche is Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach's sacred masterpiece, then the Prunksaal (mid-May to Oct Mon-Wed, Fri & Sat 10am-4pm, Thurs 10am-7pm, Sun 10am-1pm; Nov to mid-May Mon-Sat 10am-2pm; closed for the first three weeks of Sept; oS60/?4.36; www.onb.ac.at ) is his most stunning secular work. The library was begun in 1723, the year of his death, and, like so many of his projects, had to be finished off by his son, Josef Emanuel. It's by far the largest Baroque library in Europe, stretching the full eighty-metre length of the first floor of the central wing of the Hofburg facing onto Josefsplatz. Now part of the Nationalbibliothek, access to the Prunksaal is via the monumental staircase in the southwest corner of the square. Not an architect to be accused of understatement, Fischer von Erlach achieves his desired effect by an overdose of elements: massive marble pillars and pilasters, topped by gilded capitals, gilded wood-panelled bookcases, carved balconies accessed by spiral staircases and, from floor to ceiling, more than 200,000 leather-bound books, including the 15,000-volume personal library of Prince Eugene of Savoy. The space is divided by a transverse oval dome, which is decorated with Daniel Gran's magnificent fresco of the winged figure of Fame holding a rather misshapen pyramid. Among the many celestial groups there's a model of the library, to which the woman depicted as Austrian magnanimity is pointing. At the lowest level, Gran has painted trompe l'oeil balconies, on which groups of figures hold scholarly discussions. If you're really keen to work out what's going on, there's an inexpensive guide to the dome fresco available (in English) at the ticket desk. There are several antique globes in the Prunksaal itself, but if that has only whetted your appetite, you can view lots more in the two rooms of the Globenmuseum (Mon-Wed & Fri 11am-noon, Thurs 2-3pm; oS15/?1.09), situated on the third floor. The museum also displays a selection of the library's map collection. Check out the upside-down map of the world from 1154, and the sixteenth-century charts, one of which features a magnificent sea dragon happily swimming in the South Atlantic, while another depicts a bevy of parrots in the terra incognita , now known to us as South America.
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