The Imperial Forum

Plans for the ‘Imperial Forum’ were drawn up when the city walls were levelled. Gottfried Semper’s designs integrated the Hofburg ensemble which had grown as an accretion of disparate elements into a large-scale complex on the model of Versailles. It was intended as a grandiose expression of the ruling dynasty’s claim to power and of the concept of a supra- and multinational state. The only parts of the design to be realised were the Court Museums and the wing known as the Neue Burg.