Walk to the middle of the State Hall of the Austrian National Library and you're standing in front of the man who paid for it. Emperor Charles VI stands on a pedestal under the dome, larger than life, in white marble, presented as Hercules Musarum, the Hercules of the Muses.
Under the dome of the State Hall, around the marble emperor in the middle, stand four big globes. Most visitors give them a glance on the way to the…
It's the size of a large fist, 10.9 centimetres tall. In the Treasury's jewels room it sits alone in a dark case, lit from above, and it glows. It is…
In the middle of the Hofburg's inner courtyard, In der Burg, an emperor in Roman dress stands on a tall pillar with his right arm stretched out over…
Walk out of the Michaelertor, the domed gate of the Hofburg, and the first thing you'll hear is hooves. A row of open black carriages waits along the…
Most of the Order of the Golden Fleece's treasure is about the knights. This piece belonged to the man who kept track of them. It's the potence, the…
Late Gothic armour is the armour people picture when they think of a knight: slim, pointed, ridged like folded cloth, the steel following the line of…
Heldenplatz is the big open square on the Ring side of the Hofburg: lawns, two bronze horsemen, the curved front of the Neue Burg, and a long view…
The court is gone, but the places that fed it are still open. Within ten minutes' walk of the Hofburg are a confectioner that held the imperial…
Every Sunday from late September to late June, at 9:15, the Vienna Boys' Choir sings Mass in the Hofburg's own chapel. It's not a concert. It's a…
