Hofburg

The former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty, built in the thirteenth century by Ottokar II of Bohemia and enlarged many times since; it was the winter residence, Schönbrunn being the summer one. The area has been the documented seat of government since 1279. Successive expansions brought in the Amalienburg and the Albertina, the imperial chapel, library and treasury, the Burgtheater, the Spanish Riding School and the imperial mews. It faces Heldenplatz, ordered under Franz Joseph I as part of a Kaiserforum that was never finished. Austria’s president has worked here since 1946.