Imperial Apartments Vienna: what to see and how to visit

The apartments as living space

It is easy to visit grand palace rooms and see only furniture and wallpaper. The Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg work best when you remember that people actually inhabited them — that Franz Joseph woke in this iron bed at 4 am every morning of his 68-year reign, that Elisabeth had her gymnastic rings installed in that dressing room, that the documents on that desk were being read the morning the emperor died in 1916 at age 86.

The rooms are not especially large, and the decoration is largely functional rather than sumptuous. That is the point. Understanding how these two people — one who thrived in the institution, one who was destroyed by it — actually lived inside it is the experience the apartments offer.

What you need to know before you go

Entry: From Michaelerplatz, through the Michaelerkuppel rotunda. The ticket desk and audio guide distribution are in the entrance hall. The complete circuit — Sisi Museum, then Imperial Apartments, then Imperial Silver Collection — is one-directional.

Ticket: Combined Hofburg ticket at €17.50 (Sisi Museum + Imperial Apartments + Imperial Silver Collection). Audio guide included.

Hours: Daily 9 am–5:30 pm. Closed major holidays.

Where to start: The route begins in the Sisi Museum (see our Sisi Museum guide for a room-by-room account) and continues into the apartments.

Through the Imperial Apartments

Franz Joseph’s rooms (Rooms 1–8)

The circuit moves through Franz Joseph’s private rooms before Elisabeth’s, which means you encounter the emperor’s world first: the waiting room where petitioners assembled each morning, the conference room where he received ministers, and the study where he actually worked.

The study is the most important room. It is small. The furniture is modest — a plain writing desk, bookcases with leather-bound files, a few family photographs. The camp bed is an iron frame with a thin mattress; he slept on it by choice, refusing more elaborate sleeping arrangements on the grounds that officers in the field did not have feather beds. The photographs of Elisabeth on his desk are arresting: he was devoted to a woman who spent most of their marriage avoiding him.

Franz Joseph worked seven days a week, received audiences from 5 am, and signed every significant state document personally until the day he died. The study makes this feel real in a way that facts alone cannot.

The Great Apartment (Rooms 9–14)

Moving eastward through the state rooms, the decoration becomes more elaborate — these were the ceremonial apartments used for official receptions, audiences with ambassadors, and court functions. The Large Salon contains portrait paintings of the Habsburg family, and the Small Salon has the famous portrait of Elisabeth by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1865), showing her with diamond stars in her hair — the image that launched the Sisi myth and became one of the most reproduced royal portraits of the 19th century.

Elisabeth’s rooms (Rooms 15–22)

Elisabeth’s apartments are to the east of Franz Joseph’s and feel different in character. The gymnastics room — with rings, a horizontal bar, and records of her daily exercise regime — is one of the more historically unusual rooms in any European palace. She was considered eccentric for this; court ladies did not use parallel bars. She did not care.

Her dressing room contains the equipment used for the three-hour daily ritual of her hair — the specialized brushes, the hair oil, the personal hairdresser’s log of how many strands were lost at each session. The hair ritual was both vanity and anxiety: her ankle-length hair was one of her celebrated attributes, and its maintenance had become compulsive.

The rooms close with a sitting room that looks relatively normal — a place where she might actually have been comfortable — and then end. She was assassinated in Geneva in 1898. Franz Joseph lived in these apartments for another 18 years.

The Imperial Silver Collection

The Silver Collection (Silberkammer) continues the one-way circuit in a separate wing reached through a connecting corridor. It is often skipped by visitors who run out of energy after the apartments; this is understandable but regrettable.

The collection demonstrates how Habsburg state dinners actually functioned: complete banquet table arrangements set out to scale, showing how 140 metres of table would be laid for a major court dinner with vermeil flatware, Sèvres and Meissen porcelain, and Venetian glass. The logistical operation behind a Habsburg imperial banquet — hundreds of staff, months of preparation, a complete hierarchy of table placement — is vividly apparent.

The Napoleon Table Service — given by Napoleon to Empress Maria Louisa (his second wife and a Habsburg archduchess) — is the collection’s most historically loaded object. It ended up in Habsburg hands, a detail that says something about the century it inhabited.

Tickets and tours

A guided tour is particularly valuable for the Imperial Apartments, where the family dynamics (Franz Joseph’s devotion, Elisabeth’s withdrawal, Rudolf’s death at Mayerling) provide the emotional context that makes the rooms intelligible. A good guide covers this in the 30 minutes the audio guide cannot.

Comparing Hofburg and Schönbrunn apartments

The question of which palace apartments to visit comes up for every visitor. Our honest recommendation: visit both on separate days if you have 3–4 days in Vienna. If you have only 2 days, choose based on what interests you:

• Hofburg apartments: Better if you want to understand the people who inhabited them. Franz Joseph’s camp bed and Elisabeth’s gymnastics rings are not in any way decorative — they are character statements.
• Schönbrunn apartments: Better if you want architectural grandeur. The Great Gallery, the Rococo interiors, and the gardens are more visually spectacular.

See our Schönbrunn Palace guide and the Franz Joseph and Sisi guide for deeper context on both.

Frequently asked questions about the Imperial Apartments

What is included in the Imperial Apartments ticket?

The combined Hofburg ticket (€17.50) covers three linked collections: the Sisi Museum, the Imperial Apartments (22 rooms), and the Imperial Silver Collection. All three are in the same building accessed from Michaelerplatz.

How long do the Imperial Apartments take?

The Imperial Apartments section takes about 45–60 minutes. Combined with the Sisi Museum and Silver Collection, allow 2.5–3 hours for the complete Hofburg experience.

What is the most interesting room in the Imperial Apartments?

Franz Joseph’s study — with its iron camp bed, the photographs of Elisabeth on his desk, and the documents he was working on the morning he died in 1916 — is the most revealing room in the Hofburg. The contrast between the spartan space and the immense power exercised from it is striking.

Are the Schönbrunn apartments better than the Hofburg apartments?

Different rather than better. Schönbrunn’s state rooms are more elaborately decorated (Baroque and Rococo with gilded surfaces), while the Hofburg apartments reflect Franz Joseph’s personal taste for austerity. Schönbrunn is more visually spectacular; the Hofburg is more historically intimate.

Can children visit the Imperial Apartments?

Yes. The rooms are not especially interactive, but children who have heard of Empress Sisi (from the films or musical) often find the rooms engaging. The gymnastics equipment in Elisabeth’s rooms is usually a hit.

Is there an audio guide for the Imperial Apartments?

Yes — an audio guide in 34 languages is included in the ticket price. It covers the Imperial Apartments section sequentially.

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