The Spanish Riding School

The Spanish Riding School takes its name from the Iberian horses brought to the Habsburg court in the sixteenth century, and it still trains Lipizzaner stallions in the classical manner in the Winter Riding School, a white baroque hall inside the Hofburg finished in the 1730s. The horses come from the stud at Piber in Styria, arrive dark and turn white over several years. Training is slow and public: the morning exercise, set to music and without commentary, is open to visitors on many days when the school is in Vienna, and full performances are given at weekends. UNESCO added the school's classical horsemanship to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2015.

History

The riding school is first named in 1565, when a wooden riding arena was commissioned at the Habsburg court, which makes it the oldest of its kind in the world; it worked from a wooden arena on Josefsplatz until 1729, when Emperor Charles VI commissioned Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach to build the white riding hall used today. It takes its name from the Spanish horses that were one of the foundations of the Lipizzaner breed, named after the stud at Lipizza, now Lipica in Slovenia, and its horses now come from the Piber stud in western Styria (Wikipedia, Spanish Riding School).

What you'll find

• The morning exercise - riders warming up and drilling the horses, far cheaper than a performance.
• The airs above the ground - the capriole, levade and courbette, shown in the performances only.
• The hall itself - the white galleried riding house of the 1730s, lit by chandeliers.
• The Stallburg - the arcaded courtyard stables where the stallions are kept, seen on guided tours.

When to go

The school works from roughly February to late June and again from September into December; the stallions spend part of the summer away and there is nothing to watch then. Morning exercise runs on selected mornings, performances mostly at weekends. Book performances weeks ahead; exercise tickets are usually available closer to the day.

Practical notes

The morning exercise is exactly what it says: horses being warmed up and drilled, in no particular order, for an hour or more. Some people find it dull and leave early. Performance tickets are expensive, seats behind the pillars have blocked views, and the standing gallery is high and cramped. Photography is not allowed inside.

Nearby

Michaelerplatz, the Hofburg apartments and the National Library adjoin it.

Key facts