This baroque palace was built about 1700 and contains 2000
rooms, of which 40 are available for visitors. There is a sumptuous, landscaped
garden. Also, for a separate fee, one can visit a maze and one of the oldest
zoos in the world.
The Great Gallery features gilded scrolls, ceiling frescoes,
chandeliers and huge crystal mirrors, creating an effect of sheer splendor.
Numerous sumptuous balls were held here, including one for the delegates at the
Congress of Vienna. The Mirror Room is
where Mozart, then aged six, played his first royal concert in the presence of
the Emperess Maria Theresa and the royal family in 1762. The Round Chinese Room is where Maria Theresa
held secret consultations here: a hidden doorway led to her adviser's
apartments and a fully laden table could be drawn up through the floor so the
dignitaries could dine without being disturbed by servants.
Spanish Riding
School
The prancing Lipizzaner stallions perform in the opulent
surroundings of the Hofburg's Winter Riding
School. The stallions perform a
kind of equine ballet to the sound of classical music. They are part of a
long-established Viennese institution that's truly reminiscent of the old
Habsburg era. The entrance fee is a bit steep, but worth it for horse lovers.
The breed was first imported from Spain, hence 'Spanish', by the Emperor Maximilian II in 1562, and in 1580 a stud was
established at Lipizza, hence 'Lipizzaner', now in Slovenia.
Tickets to watch the horses train can be bought on the day at gate No 2,
Josefsplatz in the Hofburg. They can be seen training for much of the year,
except Christmas to mid-February and July and August, though they are sometimes
away on tour.