Imperial Hall

The walls of this unostentatious Late Renaissance room are dominated by fourteen portraits of Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors, hung there in the 19th century. Built in 1605, it was originally – like the later antechamber – a waiting-room for the no longer existing audience chamber of Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, who built the Residenz.

The cast-iron stove is a rarity; dating from 1670, it is the oldest of the historical stoves in the Residenz. Until recently it could even be used for heating. The benches around it, painted in "peasant baroque" style and dating from the era of Prince-Archbishop Franz Anton von Harrach (between 1709 and 1727), were intended for the footmen. The Kaisersaal, located centrally, is connected by passages with the Carabinierisaal, the Grüner Saal and the "Flood" corridor as well as with St Peter's Abbey. This made it suitable for banquets and concert performances.

A contemporary wrote: "At midday there was a banquet at the court, set in the Kaisersaal – not in the form of a horseshoe, but an ordinary long table with 39 laid places". And another: "Today [the company] dined in the Kaisersaal, where there were 3 tables […]; in the middle, below this table, were the musicians, namely 24 violinists playing various pieces. […] In a word, many cavaliers around here say that the entertainment here is more cultured than in Vienna."

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