Six hundred years of accumulated significance in seven letters, spelled identically in German and English. The Hofburg was the Habsburg seat in Vienna for six centuries and remains the official residence of the Austrian president. It houses the Imperial Treasury, the Spanish Riding School, the Austrian National Library and several museums, drawing enormous visitor numbers. That makes it a subject rather than just a building. Habsburg history, Central European politics, imperial architecture and Viennese culture all run through it, with a substantial general readership.