The Hofburg, Sisi Museum and Imperial Treasury

Unlike Schönbrunn, which was built to a single design, the Hofburg grew wing by wing over six centuries as each Habsburg ruler added a courtyard, a chapel, a library or a riding hall. Today it holds the offices of the Austrian president, the Spanish Riding School and half a dozen separate museums. Trying to see all of them in one visit is impossible; pick two from the three highlights below.

The Sisi Museum and Imperial Apartments

Entered beneath the great copper dome of the Michaelerkuppel on Michaelerplatz, one combined ticket covers two sections (the Former Court Silver and Tableware Collection is currently closed for renovation; check the official Hofburg site for updates):

• The Sisi Museum: traces the life of Empress Elisabeth, separating the post-war Sissi film myth from the restless, poetry-writing woman who hated court protocol, exercised on gymnastic rings in her dressing room and was assassinated by an anarchist in Geneva in 1898.
• The Imperial Apartments: 24 rooms used by Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, from the Emperor's study and audience chamber to Sisi's dressing and exercise rooms.

Queues at the ticket desk under the dome build quickly after 10am; book a timed slot online before you go.

The Imperial Treasury (Kaiserliche Schatzkammer)

Tucked into the oldest medieval courtyard of the palace, the Schweizerhof, the Treasury is quieter than the Sisi Museum and holds the actual insignia of European power. Its two standout rooms display the octagonal 10th-century Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, set with uncut gemstones and enamel plaques, and the 1602 Crown of the Austrian Empire made for Rudolf II in Prague, alongside Burgundian robes, reliquaries and a narwhal tusk once prized as a unicorn horn.

The State Hall of the National Library (Prunksaal)

Around the corner on Josefsplatz, behind an unassuming door, sits one of the grandest Baroque interiors in Europe. Designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and completed in 1726, the hall stretches nearly 80 metres under a frescoed central dome, lined floor to ceiling with 200,000 leather-bound volumes collected by Prince Eugene of Savoy and the court, plus giant Venetian globes. It takes only 30 minutes to see and needs a separate ticket at the door.

Between visits, walk through the courtyards: from Michaelerplatz with its exposed Roman ruins, through the red-painted gateway of the Schweizerhof (where the Vienna Boys' Choir sings Sunday mass in the Hofburgkapelle; tickets must be booked months ahead), out to the wide lawns of Heldenplatz and the rose beds of the Volksgarten. From the south side of Heldenplatz, you are two minutes' walk from the Kunsthistorisches Museum.