When you stand in Vienna’s Hero’s Square – the Heldenplatz – the curved expanse of Hofburg Palace dominates the view. It’s another one of Vienna’s great examples of classical architecture. Let’s go inside!
The facade seen from Hero’s Square is just a small piece of the massive complex that makes up Hofburg Palace. The rest of the palace spreads over 60 acres of prime Vienna real estate.
Hofburg Palace was the residence of the Habsburgs, of course, but there’s still a lot happening there today. One wing of the palace consists of Austrian government offices, including the residence of Austria’s President.
The Vienna Boys Choir performs here on a regular basis. So do the Lipizzaner horses of the Spanish Riding School. Their headquarters are here.
Lipizzaner Stallions
Why would the Spanish Riding School have its headquarters here in Vienna? Think back to the Habsburgs making all of those alliances via marriage. Some of the most important Habsburg marriages were to members of the Spanish royal family. In fact, a Habsburg ruled Spain for many years.
Besides being beautiful to look at, Lipizzaner horses are known for things they can do that other horses can’t. Perhaps their most famous move is a jump called the capriole.
In a capriole, the horse jumps high into the air, tucks in his forelegs, and kicks out with his hind legs at the top of the jump. Then he comes down, landing on all four legs at the same time.
Hofburg Palace was headquarters for the Habsburg dynasty for centuries. We visited their summer residence, Schönbrunn Palace, but for me, Hofburg Palace should be more interesting. On the tour we signed up for, we’ll see where the Habsburgs worked and lived in the 19th century.
And what a century that was in Europe. Europe was a mess, and the Habsburgs were in the thick of it. Let us set the stage…
19th Century Europe – Up for Grabs!
At the start of the 19th century, the Europe we’re familiar with today didn’t exist. Most of Europe east of today’s France and south of Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empire.
There were no countries as we know them in the HRE. It was a collection of independent duchies and kingdoms. The big players on the scene were Prussia in the north, and France and Spain in the west.
Russia was the big player in the east. Regions occupied by today’s Italy and Germany were made up of smallish independent states.
In the middle of everything was the Balkan region, which had been under Ottoman Turkish rule for hundreds of years. When the Turks were driven out of Europe, the whole Balkan region was left essentially up for grabs.
Big Changes Coming!
Meanwhile, europeans had been taking note of events happening on the other side of the Atlantic. British colonists in the North America had declared independence from England – and had gotten away with it!
A few years later, the French populace overthrew their aristocratic rulers. It was “Out with the king!” allowing people to organize their own government and govern themselves.
People all over the region where Italy is now watched the new “Americans” and then the French. They thought, “Hey – everyone who speaks italian should get organized and govern themselves, too.”
Not one, but two wars of independence later, they succeeded in kicking the Spanish out of the south and the Habsburgs out of the north end of the boot. They didn’t want to mess with the Pope, though, so they left Vatican City alone. In 1861 they announced the formation of Italy to the world.
In the north, German speakers similarly aligned to form their own country. It would be called Germany. That was in 1871.Europe was changing fast.
To be continued…
