Hotel Imperial

The building went up in 1863 as the private palace of the Duke of Württemberg; the Duke never settled in, and in 1873 it opened as a hotel in time for the World Exhibition. Emperor Franz Joseph I preferred it to the Hofburg, which says something about both the hotel and the Hofburg. The Imperial has been Austria's foremost address ever since, hosting state banquets, opera galas, and the annual Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert reception. 138 rooms on the Ringstrasse, the café for Sachertorte (yes, they serve it here too), and a sense of Habsburg grandeur that has outlasted the Habsburgs themselves. A Luxury Collection hotel.