Seite - 307 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

307Imperial Architect: Background completion. Few, if any, architectural designs for Imperial commissions from the period have survived. 95 Holzschuh-Hofer 2007 interprets Ferdinand’s choice for Vienna as capital as part of his defence strategy against the Turks, as ‘the ideological part of a whole military defence strategy of placing the King, subsequently Emperor, as symbol of his permanent presence on the front line’. Christiane Thomas has shown that Ferdinand’s adoption of Vienna as his chief residence was not an official act, but merely the result of a process of easy stages (Thomas 1993, pp. 101–103); Altfahrt 2003 provides a graph comparing the length of Ferdi- nand’s sojourns in his various capitals and in other cities of the Empire, based on his itin- erary 1521–1564 (p. 33). But Prague remained important as residence of equal importance until ca. 1547 (Hausenblasová/ Jeitler 2014, p. 26). more ambitious garden complex, the Neugebäude, its layout was determined by it architectural elements to a much greater extent than that of the Prater. Though building may not have been his predominant passion, it is probably safe to conclude that, like his brother, Maximilian was sufficiently interested in it to participate personally in the planning of his commissions. His taste would have been formed by what he had seen in Northern Italy, in the Netherlands and in the Empire, and influenced by at least some of the architectural trea- tises of his time and their illustrations. In view of the importance of ancient precept and example in the concept and planning of the Prater gardens, one may assume that in planning his architectural commissions he likewise used classical sources—chiefly Vitruvius—and their modern interpretations and adaptations, such as Serlio’s treatises. Whether he really studied them himself or whether he had them explained to him by his humanist advisors, must re- main an open question. 5.4 The Imperial Residence: Status quo at Strada’s Arrival 5.4.1 Residential Requirements Though Ferdinand i’s representational needs were great, they were easily transcended by purely practical necessities. Some time after its heroic resis- tance to the Turkish siege, Ferdinand decided to move his court to Vienna.95 In the 1540s, after some initial repairs, he began adapting the local residence, the Hofburg, to house his increasing family. Funds were scarce, and what was done initially can be described as the minimum necessary and the maximum possible. The Hofburg proper, later also known as ‘Alte Burg’, ‘the old castle’ or ‘Schweizertrakt’, was a late medieval castle consisting of four wings around a central courtyard, fortified by irregularly placed square corner towers and provided with an elegant Gothic chapel. It was built almost on top of the city’s