History
The so-called Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg has housed the Offices of the Austrian FederalPresident since 1946. After the downfall of the monarchy the constitutional law of 1920 stated the office of the Federal President of Austria to be the highest office within the Federal Republic of Austria. Until 1938 the Austrian Head of State resided in the rooms of today´s Federal Chancellery offices at the “Ballhausplatz”. During World War II the Presidential offices were heavily damaged. When Dr. Karl Renner was elected Federal President of the young Republic of Austria,his and the Presidential Offices were moved to the Vienna Hofburg.
Unlike
other Imperial residences, the vast complex of the
Vienna Hofburg is not a single building commissioned by one
monarch, but rather a monument to the
history of
the Austrian Empire and, in particular, the Habsburgs,
which grew and expanded over the centuries. From
Ferdinand I (1521 - 1564), the first Habsburg to
feel really
at home in Vienna,
to Francis Joseph I (1848 - 1916), the
Emperor of the last years of peace the Monarchy
enjoyed, virtually each of the Austrian rulers added a
wing, a section or a richly decorated facade to the giant
building surrounding the original small castle. In so doing
they paid little heed to considerations of architectural
unity and organic homogeneity. Still, this apparently
accidental mixture of different styles, this blend of
the most diverse design concepts characteristic of
different periods - ranging from sober utilitarian buildings to the most
elaborate expression of decorative pomp and
artistic grandeur - has resulted in a consistent whole, most
impressive for its size and harmony - living proof of
the fact that historic continuity moulded in stone can
produce the most sublime artistic effects in
defiance of
all aesthetic canons. These characteristics make the Imperial Palace so attractive, thus representing and
documenting Austria´s grand history in a unique way.
Throughout
the centuries the Vienna Hofburg has retained
the character of a fortress, a fortified place designed for
defence, as can still be seen by anyone who takes a -
fairly lengthy - walk around the sprawling group of
buildings and their surroundings.On the side facing the city
centre, the tall facades incorporating the Monastery
of the Augustine Monks have a number of gates and
passageways protected, like the ground floor windows, by
heavy ironwork gratings. Star ting at “Albrechtsrampe”,
one of the last remnants of the old fortifications,
a string of gardens south and west of the complex
sweep over to Ballhausplatz, enclosed by mighty wrought
iron fences and interrupted only by the “Neues
Burgtor”, a gateway also protected by heavy doors, thus
forming a protective enclosure around the entire
palace grounds. 
The annals
of the Imperial Palace contain a detailed record of
the uses of the thousands of rooms of the Hofburg
complex, revealing a strange fact only psychology can
explain: The rulers of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine - from Maria Theresia onwards -
raised the custom of
using different rooms than their immediate predecessors
to the level of a religiously observed tradition. Whatever
the reason - mere superstition or indeed to mark the
beginning of a new reign also by a change in the way of
living - the rule was strictly adhered to at all times. Whenever
Maria Theresia (1740-1780) did not sojourn at
her beloved Schönbrunn
Palace she and her husband
Francis I (1745-1765) lived in the flight of rooms
facing the Inner Courtyard, in the Leopoldine wing, built
by and named after her grandfather Leopold I (1658-1705). Her
son Josef II (1765-1790) inhabited the
adjacent rooms facing what is today “Heldenplatz”, which did
not exist in its present form until the end of the 19th
century, and was at that time the moats and bastions of
the city fortifications and the clusters of trees of
the “Paradeisgartl”, a park on top of the city wall. His
brother and successor Leopold II (1790-1792) spent his
short reign in the “Amalientrakt”, at the northwestern end of the
Inner Courtyard built in the 15th century by
Rudolph II (1576-1612). Francis II (1792- 1835), as
Emperor of Austria and until 1806 last Emperor of
the Holy Roman Empire Francis I, chose the
building exactly opposite for his rather modest living quarters:
the “Schweizerhof ”, the oldest part of the Palace, already
documentarily authenticated in 1279, which
Ferdinand I (1556-1564) had first adapted as his residence. Francis II’s son Ferdinand (1835-1848), affectionately nicknamed
“Der Gütige” (“the kindly man”), again moved
to the Leopoldine wing. His nephew
and successor Francis Joseph I (1848 - 1916) was
the first and only monarch to live in the architecturally most
grandiose north-eastern wing of the Palace, the “Reichskanzlei”, which Charles VI had started and which
was completed only in the later years of the 19th
century. The last Austrian Emperor Charles (1916-1918)
resided in the “Amalientrakt”, whenever he was not
kept away from Vienna
by the World War which raged
throughout his reign. Quite literally then, the Inner Courtyard,
or “Franzensplatz”, is surrounded by quarters holding
memories of Austrian monarchs.
In 1657
Leopold I became the ruler, at first of the Habsburg
dominions. He soon started to build his own stately
palace on the grounds next to the old castle. The
wounds of the Thirty Year’s War began to heal, Austria was
about to become a major power and the Turkish
threat appeared to be sufficiently remote to warrant
investments in the border city of Vienna. By 1660 the
Emperor’s Italian masterbuilders, Burnacini - renowned
for his theatre buildings - and the engineer Lucchesi,
had completed and secured approval of their plans and
construction work started on the building which was
to extend between the Old
Castle and the “Amalientrakt”,
and was to form the South-Western side of the
future Inner Courtyard towards the Vienna suburbs. The project was completed six years later and the Emperor
was able to move in shortly after his wedding
with his first wife, Margaret Theresa of Spain.
Not for
long, though, since after only two years, the new palace
burnt down completely in 1668 and the Imperial family, including
the Emperor’s mother and sisters, barely
escaped the flames. Those hardest hit by the accident
were the Jews of Vienna, who were accused of arson and,
not for the first time, expelled from the capital.
Leopold
I, however, did not renounce his plan: Reconstruction
started in the same year and, spurred by the
impatience of the Emperor, who had become “homeless”,
the emperor and his court were able to “move in” again in 1670 already, however, the works were
finally completed in 1681. As a precaution, the fortifications
to the South and South-West were at the same time
reinforced, which was to prove most helpful 13 years
later when the Turks finally did advance to Vienna and laid siege to the city for a
second time. Their most
dangerous attacks were brought to a standstill at these
fortifications and the Spanish Bastion.
Even though
the “Reichskanzlei” designed by the two Fischer
von Erlachs for Charles VI, which finally completed
the Inner Courtyard on the side facing the city, would
have offered more room for pomp and ceremony,
Charles’s daughter Maria Theresia chose this wing, built
by her grandfather and named “Leopoldine Wing ” after him, as her residence. For festive occasions the Empress
retired to Schönbrunn
Palace, which she quite
generally preferred to her town residence, because it offered
her all the spaciousness and fresh air she loved. As her
winter residence she adapted the Leopoldine wing,
furnishing it in the lavish style of her day, though with a
personal touch that was to make her comfortable.
Adapted by
Maria Theresia While the
structural changes were of minor proportions,
they were typical of the monarch’s lifestyle: In the “bel
étage” the old windows were exchanged for
new, taller
ones that could be opened wide to let the fresh air
in. Similarly , the “Adlerstiege”, staircase, begun by Charles
VI, was made more spacious and the narrow stairwells
and spiral staircases were left to the servants and
chambermaids.
In her
later years, when the Empress had lost much of her
agility, she did not have to use any stairs at all: A steep ramp
was built from the square in front of the palace -
the present-day “Heldenplatz” - allowing her carriage to
go up to the top of the western fortifications, which ran
out towards the suburbs, at right angles with the
Leopoldine wing. In this way
she easily reached the “Bellaria”, an annexe to
the Lepoldine wing built on the fortifications, the
entrance to which was situated at the level of the second
storey of the main building giving direct access to the
Imperial apartments. The present ground-floor entrance to
the annex - still called “Bellariator” - was built only
in the 19th century after the demolition of the adjacent
fortifications and their extension, the “Paradeisgartl”. The street now called “Bellariastraße” thus
derives its name from that airy, balconied annex to the
Palace. The name of this street and that of its continuation
- “Burggasse” - still recall the fact that they provided
the only direct access to the Hofburg from the outskirts.
When
talking of the good old days we have to bear in mind
that at that time even an Imperial household lacked
virtually all the facilities which our generation takes for
granted. There was not a single toilet or bathroom in
the Palace (nor, for that matter, at Schönbrunn Palace, at least up to the death of
Francis Joseph).
Even the Imperial family had to make do with commodes
and wooden bath tubs which were filled with hot water
hauled along in steaming buckets.
Heating was
a different matter: The tall rooms of the
Imperial apartments in the Leopoldine wing were fitted with
splendid Baroque stoves, masterpieces of ceramic art
that almost touched the ceiling. The
Imperial stove-tenders were respected men holding
responsible positions, but they had no access to the living
quarters. The stoves were loaded with logs from a
corridor running the entire length of the flight of apartments. The Hofburg must actually have been a fairly warm
and cosy place, to judge from old bills still extant,
which tell us that in the course of one winter season a
minor forest went up through the Hofburg chimneys.
Housing the
Presidential Offices since 1946 When, in 1946,
the Office of the Federal President moved from
Palais Kaunitz to the Leopoldine wing, the stoves were
examined and found to be in perfect condition. Still,
it proved much cheaper to install an, admittedly
anachronistic, central heating system than to heat the
rooms with fuelwood. The heating corridor, which had become useless, was now available for the installation
of those sanitary facilities without which even an Imperial Palace must be considered uninhabitable
in our day and age.
© 2010 The Federal President of the Republic of Austria : imprint : legal notes : contact
