Am Hof, where the city armed itself

In early July 1683, Emperor Leopold the First rode out of the city with his entire court trailing behind him. The Viennese were left wondering who exactly was going to defend them.

 

Part of the answer stood on this square. Along the northern side was the citizens' armoury, the city's own weapons store, and this is where you came for your musket and your powder when things got serious. The fire brigade occupies the building now, which in a way still fits.

 

Things got serious on the fourteenth of July. By then the Viennese had already set fire to their own suburbs to deny the besiegers any cover, so thousands of people had lost their homes before a single shot was fired.

 

This is the oldest seat of power in the city, named after the dukes who held court here long before the Habsburgs. More than a century after the siege, it was announced from the balcony of the church beside it that the Holy Roman Empire had ceased to exist. The square where Vienna armed itself is also the square where the empire was dissolved.

 

On the western side of the square, a narrow little street leads away, with a horseman raising a sabre on the facade.