The Emperor Who Left

On the seventh of July 1683, Leopold the First left his own capital behind. The court carriages rolled past right here, heading for the Danube and on toward Passau, and according to people at the time, those left behind shouted their opinions from the roadside as the emperor passed.

 

You can see the logic, though. An emperor taken prisoner would have meant the end of the dynasty, and from Passau he could do exactly what Vienna needed most: bring allies on board, raise money, and assemble the relief army. Tens of thousands of Viennese did the same thing, by the way, fleeing the city until mostly those with no choice were the ones who stayed.

 

The square takes its name from the ball house that once stood here, a covered court for an early version of tennis where the court amused itself. A few decades after the siege, the secret court chancellery went up beside it, and ever since, the word Ballhausplatz means the same thing in Austria as Downing Street does in England: this is where the government sits.

 

So the square of fleeing power became the address of power, with everything that comes with that. In 1934, a chancellor was shot dead in his own office here.

 

Around the corner, by the gate of the Hofburg, that same emperor comes back again in September.