The story of this place
For over 600 years the Hofburg was the seat of Habsburg power, growing from a 13th-century fortress into a sprawling complex of some 2,600 rooms as each ruler added his own wing. From here they governed the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918. Emperor Franz Joseph I lived here for 68 years; his wife Empress Elisabeth—Sisi—is remembered in a museum of her tragic life. The Hofburg holds the Imperial Treasury with the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Riding School, and today the office of Austria's president.