Who runs Austria's former imperial palaces and collections

The short answer

Austria's former imperial palaces belong to the Republic, but the visits in them are run by several bodies, and each sells its own tickets.[10][2] Four matter most to a visitor: a state-owned company, the Schönbrunn Group, for Schönbrunn and the Sisi Museum; a public-law museum association, the KHM-Museumsverband, for the Kunsthistorisches Museum's houses, from the Imperial Treasury to Ambras Castle; the Spanish Riding School's own public-law entity; and the Burghauptmannschaft Österreich, a federal office that looks after the buildings.

The practical consequence is that a palace complex is not one ticket. The Spanish Riding School's FAQ says there is no single ticket for all areas of the Hofburg.[15] Knowing who runs a visit tells you where its genuine ticket is sold.

The Schönbrunn Group: a company owned by the Republic

Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H. is a limited liability company whose shareholder is the Republic of Austria, according to its legal notice, and it operates Schönbrunn Palace, the Sisi Museum with the Imperial Apartments and Silver Collection in the Vienna Hofburg, the Vienna Furniture Museum, Schloss Hof Estate and Schloss Niederweiden.[1] It trades as the Schönbrunn Group.[3] Two of those Hofburg visits were not fully open when XTOUR read the Sisi Museum's ticket page on 9 October 2026: the Silver Collection has been closed since 1 April 2023 until further notice, and the museum section of the Sisi Museum is closed from 6 October to 18 November 2026 while the Imperial Apartments stay open.[4] The Hofburg guide follows both closures.

Schönbrunn's own history page explains how this came about: the palace passed to the Republic at the end of the monarchy in 1918, was administered by the Schlosshauptmannschaft Schönbrunn until 1992, and was then entrusted to the newly founded company, which must fund the preservation of the palace and gardens from its own resources without state subsidies.[2] The group's home page says its revenue is invested in preserving and renovating the monuments.[3]

Online, it uses one shop. Schönbrunn's FAQ warns about fake tickets and says real Schönbrunn Palace tickets are sold online only at imperialtickets.com, or on site at the ticket office.[5] The shop names itself the official ticket provider for Schönbrunn, the Sisi Museum, the Furniture Museum and Schloss Hof, and a ticket partner for other attractions on the Schönbrunn site.[6] The Schönbrunn ticket guide sets out what those tickets cover.

The KHM-Museumsverband: the federal museum association

The Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Weltmuseum Wien and the Theatermuseum together form the KHM-Museumsverband, which the KHM describes as a scientific institution under public law with full legal capacity, supervised by the Federal Chancellor through the minister responsible for the arts. Several of its collections sit inside former imperial buildings run by others: the KHM lists the Collection of Historical Musical Instruments, the Imperial Armoury and the Ephesus Museum in the Neue Hofburg, the Treasury in Hofburg Palace and the Collection of Historical Carriages in Schönbrunn Palace.[7]

So at Schönbrunn, the palace rooms are the Schönbrunn Group's and the carriage collection is the KHM's. In the Vienna Hofburg, the Imperial Apartments are the Schönbrunn Group's and the Treasury is the KHM's. The Hofburg guide sorts those visits one by one.

The association reaches beyond Vienna once. Ambras Castle's own page calls it the only site within the KHM Museum Association that is located outside Vienna, and says the Kunsthistorisches Museum and six further sites from Vienna to Innsbruck form the association.[8] The association's annual 7 Museums Pass shows its range: the Treasury's FAQ lists the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Weltmuseum Wien in the Neue Hofburg, the Imperial Armoury, the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, the Imperial Treasury, the Imperial Carriage Museum, the Theatermuseum and Ambras Castle Innsbruck.[9]

On money, the Ambras page says the association is funded in part by taxpayers as compensation for its cultural work, and that the rest of its income, 52 per cent of total proceeds in 2019, came from its own earnings, mostly admission tickets.[8] That figure is from 2019 and XTOUR has no later one.

The Spanish Riding School: its own public-law entity

The Spanish Riding School is neither a Schönbrunn Group site nor a KHM museum. Its imprint names the operator as Spanische Hofreitschule – Lipizzanergestüt Piber, a company under public law.[13] Its history page says the school and the Piber stud were reorganised into that entity in 2001, wholly owned by the federal government and given its tasks by a special law.[14]

It sells its own tickets. Its FAQ says e-tickets bought on its own website need no exchange, while tickets bought through external providers such as GetYourGuide, Musement or Tiqets must be collected at its Visitor Center ticket desk, and that it offers no combined ticket with other Hofburg attractions.[15] The Spanish Riding School guide compares its visits.

The Burghauptmannschaft: custodian of the buildings

Behind all of these stands a fourth body. The Burghauptmannschaft Österreich is a subordinate office of the Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism; since a change in the law in 2000 it has held the buildings counted as the Republic's cultural and historical heritage. Its list includes the Vienna Hofburg, the Federal Chancellery, Schloss Belvedere, the Hofburg in Innsbruck, Schloss Ambras, Schloss Hof and the former Mauthausen concentration camp, among 105 properties in all.[10]

Holding a building is not running what is inside it. In the Vienna Hofburg, the Burghauptmannschaft's own overview lists the Federal President, ministries, the OSCE and a row of separately run institutions: the Albertina, the Kunsthistorisches Museum's houses, the Austrian National Library, the Schönbrunn company's Imperial Apartments and Sisi Museum, and the Spanish Riding School.[11] The National Library, for example, sells its own tickets for the State Hall on Josefsplatz.[17] At the Belvedere, the museum's legal notice names a separate operator, the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, an academic institution under public law.[16]

The exception is Innsbruck. There the Burghauptmannschaft lists the Hofburg Innsbruck among its own operations and invites visitors to Maria Theresa's state rooms, Sisi's imperial apartment and a permanent exhibition on Emperor Maximilian I.[12] Innsbruck shows the split in one city: XTOUR's reading is that the Innsbruck Hofburg is run by the building's custodian, while Ambras Castle, also held by the Burghauptmannschaft, is run as a museum by the KHM-Museumsverband.[8][10] Ambras itself has a guide of its own, Innsbruck's Golden Roof and Ambras Castle.

Why it matters for a ticket

XTOUR's reading of these pages is simple: buy from the body that runs the visit. Schönbrunn Group sites point to imperialtickets.com, the Riding School to its own site and Visitor Center, and the KHM houses to their own ticket pages, although the Schönbrunn Group's shop also sells, as a ticket partner, admission to the KHM's carriage museum at Schönbrunn.[6] A reseller is not necessarily fake, but only the operators' pages say what their tickets include, and the Schönbrunn FAQ's warning about fake ticket websites is the operator's own.[5]

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not publish prices, opening hours or availability for any of these sites, and does not compare the operators' finances beyond the figures they publish. The Burghauptmannschaft's list includes the former Mauthausen concentration camp; the memorial there is not a palace visit and is not described here; it has its own guide, visiting the Mauthausen Memorial, which keeps to the memorial's own words. XTOUR does not sell tickets for any of these sites.

See Vienna, Innsbruck and Austria for the places themselves.