The Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria – Part One of Day 2
Day 2 of our stay in Vienna, we took a hop on, hop off, Red Bus Tour. We hopped off when we arrived at the Hofburg Palace.
Have you ever heard of the Habsburg’s? I never had but yet that dynasty ruled for over 6 centuries starting in 1276 and ending in 1918. This family has ties in all kinds of countries!
This is only one part of their palace.
The palace has 18 wings, 2550 rooms and 19 courtyards. The wealth and magnificence of the place is incredible. This is also where you would see the famous Lippazanner stallions.
This is just a breezeway (for lack of a better word) between one courtyard into another! See that brown door in the middle? That’s where you can go to see the famous white Lipizzaner stallions.
I can’t even begin to give you all the history, as you can imagine. It can all get quite confusing. For example, Maria Theresa was the only female ruler and she had 16 children! Not only that, 11 of them were daughters and they ALL started with the name Maria. 
š§ (One of her daughters married Napoleon.)
Maria Theresa
A lot of the palace’s tour is centered around Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth. It’s quite a compelling and tragic story. Apparently, there are movies that have been produced telling the story of Elisabeth (yes, she spelled her name with an s and not a z), also known as Sissi. Pictures are not allowed in the apartments so I have none to show of that.
We climbed so many steps while in Austria. It was a very good workout for me for once we started having some of their delicious pastries, we made sure to have them at each meal.Ā As an aside… notice the fancy carvings on the staircase.
The carriage house and the stables, which are grand just on their own, covers several city blocks and housed 400 royal carriages and 600 horses.
I only have a few photos of this for there’s no way to capture the entire complex. It’s massive!
I love the tall wooden doors.
Carriage rides are offered. We never did one but they looked quite romantic and fun. š
Austrians love being outdoors and they take advantage of their parks. These nice lawns were a part of the Hofburg Palace but are open to the public for them to enjoy. There were small groups of people covering the lawns.
And they love their cafes which can be found everywhere – even here at the Hofburg Palace.
My husband commented, “Amidst all of this wealth and opulence Iām reminded of the Scripture ‘Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him.'”
Here’s my prior posts on our Austria trip in case you missed them.
We Have Arrived in Austria – Day 1
One Comment
Lu
You make me want to research all the history as I haven’t heard of it either! Thanks for sharing. I will have to put this in my bucket list. How neat. This might be the place we have to visit with YOU….maybe we can get Switzerland and Austria in together for a few specific places!