Visiting Hofburg Palace

The Habsburgs ruled from this Vienna city-centre complex until 1918, and of its 2,600 rooms the public sees the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments. Both sit behind one security-controlled entrance at the Michaeler Gate, which is where the practical questions start.

Hofburg Palace stands at Michaelerkuppel, 1010 Vienna, Austria, in the historic city center. Inside the complex, the Imperial Apartments extend across the Imperial Chancellery Wing and the Amalienburg, the two ranges that held the private and official quarters of the imperial couple. Visitors enter beneath the dome of the St. Michael's Wing, which is also the way into the Sisi Museum. St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Vienna State Opera are both a short walk from there, and the U3 stops at Herrengasse five minutes away while trams 1, 2, D and 71 stop at Burgring on the far side of the complex.

Hofburg Palace opens four main points of interest to visitors: the Sisi Museum, the Imperial Apartments, the square at Michaelerplatz, and the Spanish Riding School. Builders raised a medieval fortress here in the 13th century, and seven centuries of additions turned it into the Baroque and Neoclassical complex that housed the Habsburg emperors until 1918. The palace holds over 2,600 rooms across 18 wings, though most of them stay closed as government offices or separate institutions, so a visit concentrates on the imperial quarters and the courtyards around them.

The Sisi Museum sits inside the imperial complex rather than in a separate building, so the route in runs through Hofburg Palace itself. It opened on 24 April 2004, the 150th anniversary of the wedding of Empress Elisabeth and Emperor Franz Joseph I, and occupies the Stephan Apartments, with an exhibition laid out by set designer Rolf Langenfass and reworked in 2009. Six thematic sections hold more than 300 original belongings, among them clothing, beauty preparations and medical equipment. The exhibition sets her documented life against the romantic legend that formed around her after her death. Touring this part of the route takes 30 to 40 minutes.

The Imperial Apartments, or Kaiserappartements, hold 24 rooms across the Imperial Chancellery Wing and the Amalienburg, arranged as Franz Joseph and Elisabeth used them. Franz Joseph ruled for 68 years and started his day at 05:00, a routine his plain bedroom and office still match, while Elisabeth's rooms run the other way, luxurious and withdrawn, the quarters of a woman who spent much of each year travelling away from Vienna. Rococo and Neo-Rococo interiors run through both halves, with stucco work, Bohemian crystal chandeliers and tiled stoves. Walking this section takes 30 to 40 minutes.

Michaelerplatz fronts the Michaelertrakt, the curved palace facade, and sits at the geographical centre of Vienna's 1st District where Kohlmarkt, Herrengasse and Reitschulgasse meet, under postal code 1010. Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach designed the Michaelertrakt around 1725, but it stood unfinished for more than 150 years until Ferdinand Kirschner completed it between 1889 and 1893, work that required demolishing the Altes Burgtheater. An open excavation at the centre of the square, uncovered in 1991, shows Roman and Medieval foundations, and the Loos House of 1910 faces the palace entrance across the cobbles. Exploring the square takes 10 to 15 minutes.

The Spanish Riding School, or Spanische Hofreitschule, has practised the Classical School of Horsemanship, the art of the Haute Ecole, for over 450 years. It works from the Winter Riding School, the Baroque arena Emperor Charles VI commissioned from Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, which his son Joseph Emanuel completed between 1729 and 1735 as a hall of 56 by 18 metres. UNESCO lists the school's Lipizzaner tradition as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and it is the only place where Renaissance-style equestrian skills survive in their original form. Visitors watch the morning training, attend a gala performance, or join a tour of the stables, each running about 60 minutes.