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Hidden away round the back of the Hofburg, Minoritenplatz is a peaceful, cobbled square entirely surrounded by Baroque palaces, now transformed into ministries and embassies. At its centre is the fourteenth-century Minoritenkirche , whose stunted octagonal tower is one of the landmarks of the Innere Stadt (the top was knocked off by the Turks during the 1529 siege). Inside, the church is impressively lofty, but it's the kitsch copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper , on the north wall, that steals the show - only close inspection reveals it to be a mosaic. The work was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon, who planned to substitute it for the original in Milan, taking the latter back to Paris. By the time it was finished, however, Napoleon had fallen from power and the Emperor Franz I bought it instead, though it wasn't until 1847 that it arrived back in Vienna. On the south side of the square stands a magnificent palace built for the Emperor Karl VI by Hildebrandt as the Court Chancery, and now the Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancery), home of the Austrian chancellor and the Foreign Ministry, whose main entrance opens onto Ballhausplatz. It was in this palace that Prince Metternich presided over the numerous meetings of the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15, and here, in the chancellor's office, that the Austro-fascist leader, Engelbert Dollfuss, was assassinated during the abortive Nazi putsch of July 25, 1934.
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