Fodor's Expert Review Neue Burg

Standing today as a symbol of architectural overconfidence, the Neue Burg was designed for Emperor Franz Josef in 1869 as a "new château" that was part of a much larger scheme meant to make the Hofburg rival the Louvre, if not Versailles. The German architect Gottfried Semper planned a twin of the present Neue Burg on the opposite side of the Heldenplatz, with arches connecting the two with the other pair of twins on the Ringstrasse, the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) and the Naturhistorisches Museum (Museum of Natural History). But World War I intervened, and with the empire's collapse the Neue Burg became the last in a long series of failed attempts to bring architectural order to the Hofburg. Today the Neue Burg houses four specialty museums: the Imperial Armor Collection, the Collection of Historical Musical Instruments, the Ephesus Museum, and the Ethnological Museum. For details on these museums, see separate listings.