Constructed at the Škoda Works in Plzeň, Bohemia, the "Tegetthoff"s main battery consisted of twelve 45-calibre Škoda K10 guns mounted in four triple turrets. Two turrets each were mounted forward and aft of the main superstructure in a superfiring pair. The implementation of triple turrets came about for two reasons: the need to ensure the ships had a more compact design and smaller displacement to conform to Austro-Hungarian naval doctrine and budget constraints, and to counter the implementation of triple turrets on the Italian "Dante Alighieri". While the Italians had initiated construction on "Dante Alighieri" before work had begun on the "Tegetthoff" class, the shipyards in Trieste were able to construct "Viribus Unitis" faster than their Italian counterparts and she was commissioned in December 1912, just a month before "Dante Alighieri". This made the "Tegetthoff"s the first dreadnoughts in the world with triple turrets, in which the Austro-Hungarian Navy took great pride.