Atlas, on the roof of Austrian National Library, Vienna

In February 2012, we went to Vienna for a weekend. The city is renowned for its high quality of like and for having a profusion of architectural must-sees, most notably buildings. Most of them are more than one hundred years old, and some much much older. Hofburg, the former Imperial Palace is one of the most well known:

Built in the 13th century and expanded in the centuries since, the palace has been the seat of power of the Habsburg dynasty rulers, and today the official residence and workplace of the President of Austria.

The building is quite big and you can spend hours just walking around, admiring the architectural details. I wanted to highlight today the roof of the what is now the Austrian National Library, as seen from the Joseph Square. While the library was finished in 1735, the exterior decorations were already done in 1726 by Lorenzo Mattielli, an Italian sculptor from the Baroque period.

Somehow, the sculpture of Atlas, a Titan condemned to hold up the sky for eternity, stayed back in my mind. Maybe because it was snowy that day, the white sky made the gold celestial globe come out even better:

Atlas, surrounded by women standing for Astronomy and Astrology.

A similar sculpture can be found on the right part of the roof, Gaia, holding the terrestrial globe, flanked by Geometry and Geography (from afar, on the right). I had no good picture of it unfortunately, so here is a high quality one.

-

And this is only the exterior of the Library. It holds more than 2.5 millions of books, some dating back to the 14th century, and can be visited too. As a bonus, here is an official picture (not by me, we were unfortunately short on time):

© Hejduk/Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
I very highly recommend visiting Vienna, and taking your time walking around the Palace and the National Library!