Page 99 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Vienna

HOFBURG QU AR TER  97

y Neue Burg o Hofjagd und
Rüstkammer
Heldenplatz. Map 4 D1 & 5 B4.
Tel 52524484. % Volkstheater, As Neue Burg. Tel 525244502.
Herrengasse. v D, 1, 2, 71. ∑ khm.at
Open 10am–6pm Wed–Sun.
& ∑ hofburg-wien.at The Hofburg’s weapons
collection is impressive both for
The Neue Burg, a massive curved its size and for the workmanship
building situated on Heldenplatz, of its finest items: ivory and
was added to the Hofburg filigree inlay on weapons,
Complex between 1881 and medieval ceremonial saddles
1913. It embodies the last gasp and jewelled Turkish and Syrian
of the Habsburg Empire as it maces. Of note are the
strained under aspirations of 16th­century ceremonial suits
in dependence from its domains, worn by the Habsburgs for
when the personal prestige of tournaments and military
Emperor Franz Joseph was all that parades, and the decorative
seemed able to keep it intact. fighting and hunting weapons.
It was not the perfect moment The core of the collection is
to embark on an extension to the personal armouries of the
the Hofburg, but the work was Habsburg emperors and, not
undertaken never theless, and the surprisingly, houses one of the
Neue Burg was built to designs finest collections in Europe.
by the Ringstrasse architects Karl
von Hasenauer (1833–94) and p Weltmuseum
Gottfried Semper (1803–79). Five
years after its completion, the Wien
Habsburg Empire ended. Suit of armour at Hofjagd und Rüstkammer As Neue Burg. Tel 534305052. Open
In 1938, Adolf Hitler stood on 10am–6pm Tue–Sun (to 9pm Fri). &
the terraced central bay to i Sammlung Alter 7 - ∑ weltmuseumwien.at
proclaim the Anschluss – the
union of Austria and Germany Musikinstrumente Collecting for the Weltmuseum
– to tens of thousands of As Neue Burg. Tel 525244602. began in 1806, and young
Viennese (see p38). ∑ khm.at archdukes on their travels across
The Neue Burg is home to the the globe were avid contri bu­
reading room of the national Pianos that belonged to tors. The “Museum of Man”, as
library, as well as a number of Beethoven, Schubert and Austria’s foremost ethnological
museums (see following entries) Haydn, among countless other institution is sometimes called,
that are all under the direction items, are housed in the musical has as its centrepiece the Italian
of the KHM­Museumsverband. instrument museum. More Renaissance­style Hall of
impressive, however, is the Columns. There is a café and
collection of Renaissance bistro and 14 galleries themed
u Ephesos Museum instruments, widely believed to by region or subject. There is a
be the finest in the world. The permanent exhibition on the
As Neue Burg. Tel 525244902.
Open 10am–6pm Wed–Sun. claviorgan (1596), the oldest English explorer James Cook.
∑ khm.at surviving example of this But the most prized piece is the
instrument, is particularly 500­year­old green quetzal­
For decades interesting, and features stops feather Penacho tribal head­
Austrian used to create special effects dress from Mexico, sometimes
archaeologists such as birdsong. attributed to Montezuma. There
have been exca­ is also a rare collection from
va ting the Greek Benin, but everyday items from
and Roman site primitive cultures ranging from
of Ephesus in Turkey. the Arctic and Himalayas to
Since 1978 their discoveries mud huts are equally evocative.
have been displayed in the main
block of the Neue Burg. Also on
show are finds from the Greek
island of Samothrace, excavated
in the 1870s. The main exhibits
include a huge frieze com mem­
o rating Lucius Verus’s victory over
the Parthians in AD 165, and Renaissance cittern from the
many architectural fragments. Sammlung Alter Musikinstrumente

096-097_EW_Vienna.indd 97 03/10/17 11:12 am