Architecture Vienna

A front door finished too late

Michaelerplatz, Innere Stadt (Route 1)

1 min readMichaelerplatz 1

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The Michaelertrakt today

The curved wing in front of you, the green copper dome, the two bellowing fountains. This is the ceremonial front door of the , and it is far younger than it looks.

drew it in 1726. Then nobody built it for more than a century and a half. The old court theatre stood in the way until 1888, and the dome was finished only in 1893.

Rudolf von Alt's view of Michaelerplatz, 1888

So for almost all of her life this square did not look like this. knew it as scaffolding and a building site, and the finished version for barely five years.

Her rooms are behind that gate. Walk through the arch into the courtyard called In der Burg.

Map showing Michaelerplatz 1, Hofburg, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Michaelerplatz 1, Hofburg, 1010 Vienna, AustriaVienna
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Sources. Story: Michaelertrakt and Hofburg, Wien Geschichte Wiki; Hofburg, German Wikipedia; ROODS production 2026 Photos: Michaelertrakt, Hofburg, Viena, Austria, 2020-01-31, DD 13.jpg, Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michaelertrakt,_Hofburg,_Viena,_Austria,_2020-01-31,_DD_13.jpg; Rudolf von Alt, Wien Michaelerplatz, 1888, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rudolf_von_Alt_Wien_Michaelerplatz_1888.jpg

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