Day 12 - Vienna

8 Mar 2010

I've uploaded some pictures we took around the Hofburg Palace grounds, where we spent most of our day. We got up a little late after having a long day at Salzburg the day before (age is catching up and we needed the beauty sleep).

After making our own breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast etc), we headed towards the Hofburg Palace grounds and visited the Schatzkammer - which is a huge vault containing Austria's secular and ecclesiastical treasuries, as well as the Burgkapelle.

Hofburg Palace

The Hofburg Palace currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria. In the past, the palace was once the residence of the Habsburg Dynasty, who ruled Austria and Hungary for many years. The Palace Grounds is quite vast as you can see in the pictures below.

Hofburg Palace (The Michael Wing)

Hofburg Palace Grounds

Hofburg Palace grounds

Schatzkammer

The Schatzkammer was like a large vault containing both secular and Ecclesiastical treasures. I've scanned a copy of the Schatzkammer layout (shown below):

Layout of the Schatzkammer

Reliquary with a nail from The Cross

One of the highlights of the Ecclesiastical treasures was the Reliquary containing a nail from the cross, which was believed to be supposedly affixed to the right hand of Jesus Christ during His crucifixion.

Vienna Boys' choir

The Vienna Boys' choir performs at the chapel every Sunday morning and again we were disappointed because it wasn't a Sunday. We took a shot of the Burgkapelle (interior).

Burgkapelle (interior)

Augustian Church

After visiting Hofsburg Palace, we walked past the Spanish riding school (which unfortunately did not have any performances on that day) and then to the Augustinian Church (Augustinerkirche). Augustinerkirche is located between Michaelerplatz and Josefplatz.

Augustinerkirche (interior)

Lunch

After much walking about, we decided to have lunch. We ordered a sausage (which was pretty large when compared with the sausages sold in Singapore) as a supplement to our main dishes. I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant though.

Lunch