The Wikipedia page for the Hofburg Palace (
visit link) has this paragrapgh about the Neue Burg:
"Following the enlargement of Vienna after the demolition of the city walls in the 1860s, the Hofburg had its last great expansion. An Imperial Forum (Kaiserforum) was planned—a two-winged structure reaching beyond the Ringstraße, with the twin museums (Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum) as flanks and terminating at the old Imperial Stables (the Hofstallungen, not to be confused with the much older Stallburg) of Fischer von Erlach. The project was led by Gottfried Semper and later by Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer. The museums were completed in 1891, but construction of the rest of the forum dragged on slowly and conflicted since, besides ostentation, no real function could be found for the enormous construction project. In 1913, the south-west wing, the New Castle (Neue Burg), was completed. However, the Imperial Forum was never finished. In its place, Heroes Square (Heldenplatz) and Maria Therese Square (Maria-Theresien-Platz) were laid.
The New Castle wing today houses a number of museums (the Ephesus Museum, the Collection of Arms and Armor, the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments, and the Museum of Ethnology) as well as the reading rooms of the Austrian National Library and the Hofburg Congress Center of international renown.
Equestrian statues of the two most important Austrian field marshals, Prince Eugene of Savoy and Archduke Charles, stand at the foci of Heroes Square. On March 15, 1938, Adolf Hitler proclaimed from the balcony of the New Castle onto Heroes’ Square the “Anschluss” of Austria into the Third Reich (Deutsches Reich)."
and the site's own website (
visit link) informs us:
"In 1881, the building of the large, semicircular wing of the Hofburg Palace was begun. The design was by Semper; but initially Hasenauer, and then E. Ritter v. Förster, Friedrich Ohmann and Ludwig Baumann were responsible for the building work. Initially designed as a huge Imperial Forum, intended as a celebration of the Austrian Empire, the work dragged on until the First World War and is still not completed today. The building‘s magnificence and the beauty of its interior decorations make it one of the most sumptuous buildings errected in Austria during the second half of the 19th century.
Since 1908, the building known as the Neue Burg has housed various collections: the first was the collection assembled by the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, during his voyage around the world. After his assassination in 1914, it was incorporated into the imperial collections as the „Estensian Collection". In time, more and more collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum were housed in the Hofburg Palace.
Since 1935, the main floor has housed the Collection of Arms and Armour, and since 1945 the Collection of Musical Instruments (initially displayed as part of the Estensian Collection). In 1978, the sumptuous staircase was adapted to house the Ephesos Museum. During events, you can offer your guests or clients an exclusive private view of these unique collections, with and without guided tour."