The Hofburg: the imperial quarter
Heldenplatz, the white Lipizzaners, Klimt's Beethoven, and a glasshouse you can have breakfast in. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Heldenplatz and the Neue Burg
Start in the great half-moon square the *Habsburgs* never finished. The curved *Neue Burg* on the south side is the last gasp of empire — begun for an emperor who didn't live to use it. Stand at the centre, where the two equestrian statues face each other, and the scale does the rest.

2. Spanish Riding School
The white Lipizzaner stallions still train here under the chandeliers of the *Winterreitschule*. Morning exercise is cheaper and less ceremonial than the full performance — go for that. Check the schedule first; the horses summer elsewhere and the hall goes dark.

3. Michaelertor
The Hofburg's domed gate onto *Michaelerplatz* — the green copper cupola, the two muscular fountains, the curved facade wrapping the square. Walk through the rotunda rather than around it; the underside of the dome is the point.

4. Augustinerkirche
The Habsburgs' parish church — plain Gothic outside, and the place every imperial wedding happened. The silver urns of fifty-odd Habsburg hearts sit in a side chapel, separate from the bodies in the crypt across town. A strange, quiet thing to stand near.

5. Albertina terrace
Up the ramp to the terrace over the opera — the bronze horseman, the long view down the *Ring*. The museum below holds Dürer's hare and rotating Impressionists, but the terrace is free and the best free thing here. Coffee at the café if the queue inside is long.

6. Burggarten and the Palmenhaus
The old imperial garden, now everyone's. The *Palmenhaus* (palm house) is a Jugendstil glass curve you can sit inside for breakfast among the palms. The white marble Mozart is on the lawn with a treble clef picked out in flowers below him — cross to it before you leave for *Karlsplatz*.

The Hofburg: the imperial quarter