Imperial Treasury
The Imperial Treasury, or Kaiserliche Schatzkammer, sits inside the Hofburg and houses a thousand years of European history in 21 rooms. The entrance opens from the Schweizerhof, the Swiss Courtyard—the palace’s oldest wing rebuilt in the Renaissance under Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. This collection is split into two: a secular vault, packed with imperial jewels and stones too large for crowns, and an ecclesiastical vault with relics and sacred objects once owned by saints. The treasures were assembled over centuries by the Imperial House of Habsburg, with key pieces like the Imperial Crown, Orb, and Sceptre of Austria, and the Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Emperors. The secular trove was developed starting in 1556 by Jacopo Strada, court antiquarian to Ferdinand I, while in the 18th century Maria Theresa moved the Habsburg jewels to this location to foreground imperial power. …
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