Vienna City Hall

Vienna's neo-Gothic city hall began with a simple order from Emperor Franz Joseph: architect Friedrich Schmidt was not to build a tower taller than the family's own Votivkirche. The guide follows the eleven years Schmidt spent raising this Ringstrasse fortress in local sandstone, from 1872 to 1883, and introduces the iron knight now standing watch atop the tower, armored after a suit once belonging to Emperor Maximilian I. Look up toward his feet as you cross the square below.