Neue Burg

Neue Burg forms the youngest wing of Vienna’s Hofburg Palace and faces the broad Heldenplatz. It belongs to the imperial complex in central Vienna.

Architects Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer designed the Neo-Baroque building for the planned Kaiserforum. The Kaiserforum remained unfinished.

Leitha limestone, Wöllersdorf stone and white limestone shape the structure, while wrought iron details enrich its gates and fences. Its foundations cross the site of former city fortifications.

Twenty statues decorate the Heldenplatz façade, and equestrian monuments honour Prince Eugene of Savoy and Archduke Charles. The building also carries Austria’s difficult political history.

Adolf Hitler announced Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany from the terrace above the main entrance. That terrace now belongs to the House of Austrian History.

Neue Burg houses the Weltmuseum Wien, the Ephesos Museum and the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments. The Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer presents historic arms and armour.

The Austrian National Library uses parts of the building for its reading room, map collection and Globe Museum. The Globe Museum displays globes and astronomical instruments.

The Papyrus Museum presents material from three millennia of Egyptian history, while the Ephesos Museum displays finds from ancient Ephesus. These collections connect Vienna with distant cultures and earlier worlds.

Neue Burg therefore brings imperial architecture, museum collections and twentieth-century history together in one Hofburg wing. Its unfinished forum still shapes the surrounding cityscape.