The best rider in Europe

The long white hall on one side of this lane is the Winter Riding School, built in the 1730s. The Renaissance block with the open arcades opposite is the Stallburg, where the Lipizzaners still live.

In her lifetime the best rider in this palace was the empress. That is not flattery from the court, it is the verdict of the people who rode against her. She hunted in England and Ireland with the fastest fields in the sport, hired the Englishman Bay Middleton to pilot her across country, and took fences that put younger men on the ground.

It ended badly. Sciatica and a bad knee finished her riding in her forties, and she replaced it with walking, up to ten hours a day, at a pace nobody in her household could survive.

Follow the lane back towards Josefsplatz and go to the door of the Augustinerkirche.