Prague and Vienna Summer Trip: Hofburg Palace, Museums and a Mozart Concert

Our first full day in Vienna turned out to be a very busy one. We focused on the sights close to the center – the Hofburg Palace Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, Hofburg Treasury, St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the Kunsthistorisches Museum. It was a busy day, but a very fun day nevertheless. With the Park Hyatt Vienna being located right in the center, everything was right there and easy to get to for us. Vienna has numerous museums and palaces so we picked the few we wanted to see the most. We topped off the evening with a Mozart concert at the Musikverein.

Trip report index:

• Planning and Overview

• The Sights of Prague

• Schonbrunn and Belvedere Palaces

• Hofburg Palace, Museums and a Mozart Concert

• Video of a Suite at the Park Hyatt Vienna

Hofburg Palace and Imperial Apartments

The Hofburg Palace was an important setting in Austrian and world history housing the emperors of the Habsburg dynasty. This palace was their main winter residence.

Tickets to the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Museum are 14.50 euros per person. A combination ticket, however, covering both the Imperial Apartments in Hofburg and a Grand Tour of Schonbrunn is 25 euros and the Schonbrunn Palace is definitely something everyone should see. The combination ticket allows entry to the Schonbrunn Palace without a wait and without a line and, in my opinion, it’s the way to go to save a bit of time and money.

There are essentially three parts to the Imperial Apartments/Sisi Museum visit that are accompanied by an audio guide in various languages:

• The Imperial Silver Collection: An assortment of 23 sets of tableware and utensils used at the imperial court with each having its own story.
• Sisi Museum: A very interesting historical account of the Empress’ life with artifacts from her time to accompany the story.
• The Imperial Apartments: A tour inside the palace of the original furniture, rooms and decorations.

Hofburg Treasury

The Imperial Treasury is separate from the rest of the palace. The 21 rooms of the treasury house various treasures of the Habsburg dynasty collected over a number of centuries. Here, you can see the crowns and clothes of past Kings and Emperors. There are also various jewels and ornaments.

Tickets to the Hofburg Treasury are sold with the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which we also visited on the same day. The two are located within walking distance of each other.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral

St. Stephen’s Cathedral is one of the most recognizable structures in Vienna and can be seen from most points in the center. It’s the landmark I personally used to orient myself for direction. It’s currently the most important religious building in Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop. Stopping in to look inside is free although there are a number of optional paid things you can do inside – get a guided tour, rise to the top of the tower, etc. We just walked around and enjoyed the intricate design.

Kunsthistorisches Museum

The Kunsthistorisches Museum houses compliments the treasure collection by housing the Habsburg large art collection. The upstairs picture gallery shows off paintings by Rafael and Velazquez while the downstairs gallery has more ancient treasures and instruments. The part I probably liked most is the details in the ceilings inside the museum. I spent just as much time looking up as I did around!

Mozart Concert

We ended the evening with a Mozart concert at the Musikverein concert hall. My first choice, of course, would have been the opera, but alas, it is on hiatus in the summer. Performances at the Philharmonic are also temporarily on hiatus and many of Vienna’s musicians perform at venues around the city. The Musikverein concert hall is grand and beautiful and the musicians were truly talented. The summer concerts are mainly geared toward tourists so the music is very accessible and familiar – many Mozart pieces were played including Sonata no. 40 and music from Don Giovanni. We also heard the music from Marriage of Figaro as well as the extremely famous Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss. All that said, the concert is extremely touristy, even to the point where some may view it as tacky and overly touristy. Most of the audience are international tourists and not all are experienced at attending classical music concerts. That said, it’s good to go for the performance provided one doesn’t mind people taking pictures, spontaneously falling asleep or laughing during the performance.

Trip report index:

• Planning and Overview

• The Sights of Prague

• Schonbrunn and Belvedere Palaces

• Hofburg Palace, Museums and a Mozart Concert

• Video of a Suite at the Park Hyatt Vienna