Ballhausplatz and the Congress of Vienna
Why is it significant?
Stand on the square and face the long, calm Baroque building with the Austrian flag above the door. It looks like the residence of a minor prince. In fact it is the Federal Chancellery, and for two centuries the word Ballhausplatz has meant, quite simply, Austria's foreign policy.
Key Facts
| Place | Ballhausplatz and the Congress of Vienna |
|---|---|
| Address | Ballhausplatz 2, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.20870, 16.36380 |
| Part of Walk | Vienna's Imperial Heart: The Hofburg, the Habsburg Crypt and Six Centuries of Empire |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on the square and face the long, calm Baroque building with the Austrian flag above the door. It looks like the residence of a minor prince. In fact it is the Federal Chancellery, and for two centuries the word Ballhausplatz has meant, quite simply, Austria's foreign policy.
The name is pure court life. A ballhaus was a hall for an early form of tennis played with the palm of the hand, and the court's ball-game hall stood here. The chancellery replaced it in the years after 1717, designed by Lukas von Hildebrandt, the architect of the Belvedere, to house the secret court chancellery, the office that ran the empire's diplomacy.
In the autumn of 1814, after Napoleon's first defeat, the crowned heads and ministers of Europe gathered in Vienna to put the continent back together. The host was Prince Metternich, and the serious bargaining happened in these rooms. Everything else happened in ballrooms. There were so many balls, hunts and concerts that an old prince, Charles de Ligne, quipped that the Congress dances but does not move forward. Then, in March 1815, the dancers learned that Napoleon had escaped from Elba, and suddenly they moved forward very fast.
The settlement signed in June 1815 held the borders of Europe roughly in place for decades, and with it the Habsburgs regained much of their prestige. For a few months, Vienna was the capital of the whole continent.
The building has a darker memory as well. On the 25th of July 1934, Austrian Nazis stormed the chancellery in a failed coup and shot the chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, who bled to death inside. He himself had shut down parliament and ruled as a dictator, which makes his story uncomfortable to tell on either side. Now walk through the passage in the Amalienburg wing, into the courtyard called In der Burg, and on to the red and black Swiss Gate.