Hofburg and the Sisi Museum

The Hofburg was the Habsburgs' main residence for more than six hundred years, and it is less a palace than a city within the city: a sprawl of wings, courtyards and squares from the medieval Swiss Wing to the curving Neue Burg on Heldenplatz, today housing the Austrian president's offices, the Spanish Riding School, the National Library and several museums. For most visitors the essential ticket is the one that covers the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Museum, entered from beneath the great dome of St Michael's Wing. The apartments are the rooms where Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth actually lived and worked in the winter months: the audience room where the emperor received petitioners, his study and simple bedroom, the conference room, and Elisabeth's dressing and exercise room with the wall bars and rings she used every day, the large salon and her bathroom, one of the first in the palace. The Sisi Museum before them tells the story of Elisabeth herself, the Bavarian princess who married at sixteen, became a celebrated beauty and a reluctant empress, travelled restlessly after the death of her son Rudolf, and was assassinated in Geneva in 1898, after which her legend grew far beyond the woman. The museum has been redesigned with additional rooms and reopens on 19 November 2026; until 18 November the museum section is closed and the apartments are open at a reduced price. Standard adult tickets are around 20 euros, with entry at fixed times and an optional guided version, and the Sisi Pass combines the Hofburg with Schonbrunn and the Imperial Furniture Collection for those doing the full circuit. Note that the Silver Collection, once part of the visit, has been closed since 2023, so ignore older guides that include it.

Why Sisi still draws crowds: Elisabeth was the first modern celebrity royal, obsessed with her beauty and fitness, writing poetry, escaping court whenever she could, and her image was reshaped after her death by memoirs and above all by the 1950s films with Romy Schneider. The Sisi Museum unpicks the myth from the reality with personal objects, dresses and reconstructions, including the story of her assassination, and the new presentation promises more rooms and fresh insight into her life. Then the Imperial Apartments show the setting: the high, red-and-gold rooms are sober by palace standards, a reflection of Franz Joseph's discipline, and the contrast between his work rooms and her private gym tells you everything about a marriage of two very different people.

Making the most of the Hofburg: the Sisi ticket takes about an hour and a half with the audio guide, and the timed entry keeps the rooms bearable, so book a morning slot. Combine it with the other Hofburg sights nearby: the Imperial Treasury in the Swiss Court, with the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, run by the Kunsthistorisches Museum; the Spanish Riding School's morning exercise, a few steps away on Michaelerplatz; the State Hall of the Austrian National Library, one of the most beautiful Baroque libraries in the world; and the Augustinian Church, where the Habsburg hearts are kept. Heldenplatz and the Burggarten, with its glass Palm House, are free to wander.

Practical notes: the entrance to the Imperial Apartments and Sisi Museum is under the dome of St Michael's Wing, reached from Michaelerplatz; the nearest underground station is Herrengasse on the U3, or Stephansplatz a five-minute walk away. Genuine tickets are sold online through the official imperial ticket channel and through resellers such as Tiqets, and Vienna City Card holders get a discount. The building is largely accessible, but the historic rooms can be crowded around midday. Allow a full morning if you combine the apartments with the Treasury, and a day if you add the library and the riding school.