Hofburg

This took 700 years to build. Nobody planned it that way.

You're standing in front of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty. What you see is a sprawling complex of 2,600 rooms, 18 wings, and 19 courtyards. Every emperor who lived here added something new. A wing, a courtyard, a chapel, stables for dancing horses. Nothing matches. That was never the point.

It started in 1275 as a medieval fortress. King Ottokar II of Bohemia built it with 4 towers and a moat. The Habsburgs seized it in 1279 and kept expanding for the next 640 years. Emperors, kings, the entire Holy Roman Empire ruled from these buildings.

Franz Joseph made the last big push in the 1890s. He wanted a massive imperial forum. The empire collapsed in 1918 before he finished. The throne room he commissioned? Completed in 1923, 5 years after the monarchy ended. No emperor ever used it.

Walk around the complex and you'll find something strange: 5,000 people still work and live inside. The Austrian President has his office here. Museums, libraries, conference centers fill the halls where emperors once held court.