April 2019
The first visit to the Hofburg in 1987 I was amazed. That initial trip to Europe was a series of "wow" moments, but also tempered by my recent Asian travels. I clearly remember that the Hofburg was the best amongst all the European palaces I had visited, but I simultaneously had not forgotten the absolute wealth dripping Royal Palace/Temple of Bangkok and the old Imperial Palace in Beijing [see: Palace Museum, Beijing]. I recently discovered that all the palaces in Europe had some steep competition in Asia (that I previously had never even known about).
I am not sure if I toured the Hofburg on my first visit - I had so little cash in Vienna, I might have missed it [see: Beijing to Athens]. I may well have seen it, too. I was on such palace/cathedral overload by the time I reached the Habsburg capital, it was difficult for anything to stand out. The Hofburg exterior DID impress me in 1987, even after seeing many other palaces. Fast-forward 30 years and I was back with a lot more money and time. I wanted to tour the palace, even if it meant sacrificing some sunny hours on that mostly rainy trip. The interior was, of course, amazing after amazing room. I quickly hit luxe-overload. I guessed the Austrian royalty became so used to the splendor they no longer saw it. It made me visually tired.
Since the Hofburg is a museum and not a royal residence, there is no perimeter security which means that one of Vienna's streets rolls right in front of it. A favorite aspect of the Hofburg is that the "city facing" part of the palace is just on the street like any other building. Walk through that main gate and suddenly visitors find themselves in the massive garden/museum complex to its rear - far more "palace-like". Most other palaces in Europe (except the Louvre [see: first trip to Paris]) stood behind perimeter fences, like Madrid or London. I loved that the Hofburg had a literal street address on Michaelerplatz.
As palace-museums go, it ranked high for me as a "palace" but much lower as a "museum" simply because Vienna had so many other places to display art. The very famous works in the palace were buried in opulence. It is still hard for me to get my head around a place so dripping in luxury that iconic artwork is rendered "invisible". I would say that the Hofburg might be my favorite palace in Europe as a "former living space", but when I think of the Louvre or the Vatican Museum, I quickly have to reassess. At some level, trying to "rank" such places doesn't makes sense because they exist off whatever scale used.
How can mortals attempt to assess what was formerly almost divine?