Am Hof

Am Hof Review

Am Hof is one of the city's oldest squares. In the Middle Ages the ruling Babenberg family built its castle on the site of No. 2; hence the name of the square, which means "at court." The grand residence hosted such luminaries as Barbarossa and Walter von der Vogelweide, the Minnesinger who stars in Wagner's Tannhäuser. The Baroque Column of Our Lady in the center dates from 1667, marking the Catholic victory over the Swedish Protestants in the Thirty Years' War (1618-48). The onetime Civic Armory at the northwest corner has been used as a fire station since 1685 (the high-spirited facade, with its Habsburg eagle, was "Baroqued" in 1731) and today houses the headquarters of Vienna's fire department. The complex includes a firefighting museum (open on Sunday mornings). Presiding over the east side of the square is the noted Kirche Am Hof ("kirche" means church). In Bognergasse to the right of the church, around the corner from the imposing Bank Austria headquarters, is the Engel Apotheke (pharmacy) at No. 9 with a Jugendstil mosaic depicting winged women collecting the elixir of life in outstretched chalices. At the turn of the 20th century the inner city was dotted with storefronts decorated in a similar manner; today this is the sole survivor. Around the bend from the Naglergasse is the picturesque Freyung square. At No. 13 is the fairly stolid 17th-century Palais Collalto, famous as the setting for Mozart's first public engagement at the ripe age of six. This was but the first showing of the child prodigy in Vienna, for his father had him perform for three Viennese princes, four dukes, and five counts in the space of a few weeks. Having newly arrived from Salzburg, the child set Vienna on its ear, and he was showered with money and gifts, including some opulent children's clothes from Empress Maria Theresa. Next door is the Jesuit church where Leopold Mozart directed his son's Father Dominicus Mass (K. 66) in August 1773. Some years later Mozart's first child, Raimund Leopold, was baptized here. Sadly, the child died two months later.