Heldenplatz

Located in the Innere Stadt borough, the President of Austria resides in the adjoining Hofburg wing, while the Federal Chancellery is on adjacent Ballhausplatz.

After the Napoleonic War of the Fifth Coalition, the Austrian defeat in the 1809 Battle of Wagram and the Treaty of Schönbrunn, the remaining bastions of Hofburg Palace were slighted and replaced by a curtain wall with the—still preserved—Outer Castle Gate (Äußeres Burgtor).

The present-day Heldenplatz on the former outer plaza of the Hofburg was built in the course of the lavish Ringstraße boulevard project under the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph.

From 1864 onwards, renowned architects like Carl von Hasenauer, Theophil Hansen and Heinrich Ferstel competed presenting their drafts, superseded by Gottfried Semper in 1869.

It was meant to glorify the Habsburg dynasty as great Austrian military leaders and underline the leadership of Austria within the German Confederation, though they just had suffered a crushing defeat at the bloody Battle of Solferino.