The Hofburg in Vienna is one of Europe’s largest complexes of secular buildings. Its importance as one of the world’s finest examples of residence-building is in contrast with the little attention the palace has received from art historians and with the inadequately small number of publications that deal with its history. To put things right, the Art History Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences has embarked on a multi-year project, during which the history of the Vienna Hofburg from medieval times to the end of the 20th century is studied in the best possible way. To achieve this objective, five teams of researchers have been built. Each of them covering a different time span, they approach their subject areas with the most recent methodology and on the broadest possible basis. The project is funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OEAW) and the Austrian Science Fund.

Given the fact that building activities at and in the Hofburg particularly during the 19th century had never before been a research topic of its own and that questions like architectonic complexity and intra-European relevance were always treated with much negligence, it may be expected that the new study will be groundbreaking. Based on a considerably larger amount of materials than previous examinations had used, the outcome will shed new light on problems like the heterogeneous appearance of the building at the beginning of the 19th and the numerous attempts to incorporate parts of different age, design plan and style into a uniform pattern. More insight will be gained into the building phases of the second half of the 19th century, when Gottfried Semper and Carl Hasenauer (after 1869) planned the “Kaiserforum” extensions of the Hofburg and connected the palace with the “Ringstraße” areas. Although not finished in several parts, this “Imperial Forum” project must nevertheless be considered as an integrated whole and must be viewed without differentiating between executed buildings and parts that exist in plans only.
Also in the focus will be gardens that once formed part of the Emperor’s residence. Their particular positions within the palace area, their formal layouts and special characters are outstanding if viewed in the context of 19th-century European garden art.

It is a fact that we knew little about the Hofburg’s planning, building and decorative history in the 19th century until the OEAW Hofburg project was launched. Topics like the kind and sequence of building activities in the palace areas, the aspect of dynastic representation and relating iconological questions, functional aspects and the use of spaces as well as stylistic particularities and their meanings, especially in connection with the “Kaiserforum” and here particularly with respect to interior decoration, confront the researchers with a huge number of challenging questions. Correct answers will not be found and the art-historical importance of the Vienna Hofburg not reliably re-assessed unless a wide range of sources is used and a wide range of methodologies is employed. Of highest relevance in this respect are written documents and architectural plans. Their evidence not only stands at the beginning of all Hofburg research work but also accompanies the activities throughout the project. Of particular importance here are about 10,000 plans from the Albertina, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv and other collections, which the Art History Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences had made available in electronic form in a preparatory phase of the Hofburg project and which constitute an essential tool for the successful exploration of the various topics. Apart from their historical evidence, they also form the material basis for detailed art-historical investigation, from stylistic analysis and reconstruction of the building and planning history to the determination of functions and the identification of iconographical and iconological details.

The conference will focus on a broad spectrum of aspects that are essential to the topic and throw new light on the history of residence-building in the 19th century. Prime questions will be: How did functions and use of a residence develop? What formal appearance were 19th-century residences taking? What persons and what institutions were deciding on the form and shape of a new building? What role did the events of Austrian history play in the iconography of Habsburg residences? What formal relations did exist between architectural design and gardens? It seems therefore a rewarding aim to confront Hofburg-related knowledge with the corresponding information about residences elsewhere in Central Europe and work out their common and separating elements in detail.