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Am Hof is dominated by the monument to the Virgin Mary that was cast in bronze by Balthasar Herold (1664–7). The base shows four angels fighting four animals which symbolize the four major catastrophes for humankind in the 17th century. The dragon stands for starvation, the lion for war, the fantastical Basilisk, for the plague, while heresy is symbolized by a snake.

The Basiliskenhaus is a fine example of a 13th-century home.

The Austrian sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka created a monument in 1988–91 to commemorate all those killed during the National Socialist regime and World War II. Separate elements, made of granite from the area of the Mauthausen concentration camp, are arranged on the square where the Philipphof house was situated. The house was destroyed during an air raid on 12 March 1945 and more than 300 people were buried alive in the debris. The monument includes the Austrian Declaration of Independence on the “Stone of the Republic”.

The imperial court attended masses in this church opposite the Hofburg Palace. Originally Romanesque in style, due to damage by several fires it was changed over the centuries. The original stone helmet of the tower, damaged after an earthquake, was replaced by a pointed roof in 1590. The portal is Baroque (1724–5) and the interior is dominated by Romanesque arcades as well as a Baroque High Altar.

This is Baroque architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt’s most splendid palace (1713–16). The Kinsky family purchased it in 1784 and today it hosts various businesses, shops and a restaurant.

This grand building in Historicist style was constructed between 1856–60 by Heinrich Ferstel as a stock exchange for the National Bank. Now part of the palace is the Café Central (see p94), while the courtyard is used as a shopping arcade.

At the end of the 17th century the Liechtenstein family commissioned various architects to build them an impressive Baroque summer residence. It has been renovated and reopened as a museum, exhibiting the private collection of the Liechtenstein family (mainly 17th-century art) (see p98).

This large Baroque palace was designed by Giovanni Pietro Tencala in 1685 as a stately city mansion for Count Dietrichstein. The Lobkowitz family acquired the palace in 1753 and it became known as a music venue where the family’s friend Ludwig van Beethoven performed. Today the palace hosts the Austrian Theatre Museum.

Built between 1782 and 1784, the palace was Vienna’s first Neo-Classical building, imitating ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The formal façade is enlivened by the impressive portal with caryatids by Franz Zauner. The owners, the Pallavicini family, still reside here today, and parts of the palace host a congress centre as well as a museum dedicated to the artist Salvador Dalí.

The palace, designed by Fischer von Erlach between 1699 and 1706, was the residence of the Hungarian Batthyány family, who fought in Prince Eugen’s army (see p40). The Schönborn family acquired it in 1740; today it houses offices.