Imperial Vienna: the back story

About Imperial Vienna: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Vienna Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

For more than six centuries Vienna was the seat of the Habsburgs, and the city still reads as a court capital. The Hofburg, their winter palace, spreads across the Innere Stadt, with the Spanish Riding School and the National Library in its wings. Schönbrunn, the summer palace, stands in its gardens to the south-west; UNESCO inscribed the “Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn” in 1996 and the “Historic Centre of Vienna” in 2001. In the 19th century the city walls came down and the Ringstrasse took their place, lined with the opera, the museums, the Parliament, the Rathaus and the university.

The Hofburg

The Imperial Apartments, the Sisi Museum and the Silver Collection are visited on one ticket; the Spanish Riding School performs in the Winter Riding School, and the State Hall of the National Library is one of the great baroque rooms of Europe.

Schönbrunn

The palace, the gardens and the Gloriette on the hill above them; the zoo in the park is the Tiergarten Schönbrunn.

Book Schönbrunn and the Sisi Museum online, and give each a morning.

The Ringstrasse

Take tram 1 or 2 around the Ring for a first view of the State Opera, the Burgtheater, the Rathaus and the museums.

The cathedral

St Stephen’s, the Stephansdom, rises in the middle of the old town, its roof laid with patterned tiles.

Our advice: the Kaisergruft, the imperial crypt under the Capuchin church, completes the story in half an hour.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Imperial Vienna: the back story before you go.