Ballhausplatz

The pale palace in front of you is Austria's Federal Chancellery. That is why, when Austrians say "the Ballhausplatz", they mean the government, just as the British say "Downing Street". The square takes its name from the Ballhäuser, the halls where the court played real tennis, which stood here between 1741 and 1903.

1Metternich's chancellery

Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt built it between 1717 and 1719 as the court's Privy Chancellery. Until 1918 it housed the monarchy's Foreign Ministry. Prince Metternich worked here, and in these rooms the diplomats of the Congress of Vienna of 1814 and 1815 met to redraw the map of Europe after Napoleon's defeat. The Congress's reputation was summed up in a line attributed to the Prince de Ligne: "The Congress doesn't move forward, it dances."

2July 1934

On 25 July 1934 a squad of Austrian Nazis stormed the building in an attempted coup and killed Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. The coup failed, but four years later Austria was annexed by Germany.

Since 2014 a memorial here has honoured deserters and the victims of Nazi military justice.

It is the work of the artist Olaf Nicolai: a stepped X bearing a short poem by Ian Hamilton Finlay, "all alone".

3What to look for

• Hildebrandt's façade, restrained for the Baroque, with its central portal.
• The deserters' memorial, on the lawn opposite.
• The Hofburg across the way: government and the president's office face each other.