Vienna - Josefsplatz 
The Josefsplatz is deservedly called the finest square in Vienna. It is 200 years old, was built in a unified Late Baroque style and creates a fine impression. Round it stands the Österreichische National Bibliothek, the Winterreitschule, the Palais Pálffy and the Palais Pallavicini. A fire in the Redouten tract of the Hofburg in 1992 required extensive rebuilding in the square which is now completed.
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Related Attractions
Josefsplatz Memorial
The memorial in the middle of the Josefsplatz square shows Maria Theresa's son, Joseph II; it is by A. Zauner and dates from 1795 to 1806. The reformer, clad in the garb of a Roman emperor, is shown blessing his people. The reliefs on the memorial celebrate Joseph's services to Austrian commerce and recall the many journeys he made abroad in order to benefit his people. The memorial became the spot where Viennese people loyal to the Imperial principle gathered in 1848 while the Revolution was in progress. It was their homage to an Emperor who had died half a century earlier.
Josefsplatz Palais Pallavicini
The Palais Pallavicini (Josefsplatz No. 5) in Viennz, now a club and conference center, is a noble Classical building with a magnificent portal supported on caryatides and figures on the metopes dating from 1786 by F. A. Zauner. The Palais itself was built by Ferdinand von Hoheneberg in 1783-84.
Palais Pálffy
With its interior modernized and adapted the former Palais Pálffy in Vienna is now available, under the title "Österreich-Haus", for cultural events. The Emperors' Austrian Chancellery stood on this site c. 1500. It was converted into a nobleman's palace at the end of the 16th C. The buildings were damaged by fire in the 18th C. and partially restored. Mozart produced his "Marriage of Figaro" for the first time before an audience of his friends in the room now called the "Figarosaal".
