Named after Herrengasse, the ‘lords’ street’ where the nobility of the province met.
First recorded in 1216 as Hochstraße, it is one of Vienna’s oldest streets. When the nobility settled near the Hofburg and the provincial estates – the ‘Herren’, or lords – acquired a house here in 1513 for their Landhaus, the name Herrengasse appeared (first in 1547). Only in 1710 did it finally replace Hochstraße. In the revolution of 1848 it was briefly renamed Freiheitsgasse.