Michaelertrakt

The Michaelertrakt is the grand northern wing of the Hofburg palace in central Vienna. It faces Michaelerplatz, one of the city’s most admired squares. The façade rises above the former site of old houses and the court theatre, now cleared away to make way for the sweeping curve of the building.

Its design came from Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach, who won the competition against Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt. Three plans were drawn between 1722 and 1726, but only the last was built in the 1890s under Ferdinand Kirschner. The foundations go sixteen metres deep, resting on old cellars that once held three storeys. White Kaiserstein from Burgenland was used for the plinth and staircases, while massive Herkules groups, each carved from twenty-five-tonne blocks, stand above the entrance.

Inside, visitors enter a round hall beneath a dome where statues of sandstone and Kalksandstein stand protected from the weather. The imperial driveway leads to a grand staircase of Kaiserstein, and the Gottfried von Einem Staircase rises to the treasury. Outside, two fountains show Austria’s power at sea and on land, their figures carved from Laaser marble and Swedish granite. The same design was later copied for Berlin’s Forum Fridericianum at Frederick the Great’s request.