Elegant and musical Vienna
Most newcomers to Vienna arrive with a firm image in their minds: a romantic place full of Habsburg nostalgia and musical resonances. Visually it's unlikely to disappoint: an eclectic feast of architectural styles, from eighteenth-century High Baroque through monumental nineteenth-century imperial projects to modernist experiments and enlightened municipal planning.
However, the capital often seems aloof from the rest of the country; Alpine Austrians look on it as an alien eastern metropolis with an impenetrable dialect, staffed by an army of fund-draining bureaucrats. The former imperial city has had a tough time of it in the twentieth century, deprived of its hinterland by World War I, then washed up on the edge of western Europe by the Cold War. Its population has dropped by a quarter since 1910, and its image is one of melancholy and decay, though the latter is perhaps more a romantic affectation than a realistic portrait of the city today.
The first settlement of any substance here, Roman Vindobona, was never much more than a garrison town, and it was only with the rise of the Babenberg clan in the tenth century that Vienna became an important centre. In 1278 the city fell to Rudolf of Habsburg, but had to compete for centuries with Prague, Linz and Graz as the imperial residence on account of its vulnerability to attack from the Turks, who first laid siege to it in 1529. It was only with the removal of the Turkish threat in 1683 that the court based itself here permanently. The great aristocratic families, grown fat on the profits of the Turkish wars, flooded in to build palaces and summer residences in a frenzy of construction that gave Vienna its Baroque character.
Imperial Vienna was never a wholly German city; as the capital of a cosmopolitan empire, it attracted great minds from all over central Europe. By the end of the Habsburg era it had become a breeding ground for the ideological movements of the age: nationalism, socialism, Zionism and anti-Semitism all flourished here. This turbulence was reflected in the cultural sphere, and the ghosts of Freud, Klimt, Schiele, Mahler and Schonberg are nowadays bigger tourist draws than old stand-bys like the Lipizzaner horses and the Vienna Boys' Choir. There is more to Vienna than fin-de-siecle decadence, however; a strong, home-grown, youthful culture, coupled with new influences from former Eastern Bloc neighbours, has placed the city at the heart of European cultural life once again.
Vienna has a compact historical centre, bound to the northeast by the Danube canal and surrounded on all other sides by the majestic sweep of the Ringstrasse. From here, the main arteries of communication radiate outwards before reaching another ring road, the Gurtel (literally "belt"), further west. Most of the important sights are concentrated in this tourist-clogged district and along the Ring, but a lot of the essential Vienna lies beyond it, in the initially forbidding grid of barracks-like nineteenth-century apartment blocks; and there are outlying sights such as the imperial palace at Schonbrunn, or the funfair and parklands of the Prater. With judicious use of public transport, you can see a great deal in a couple of days.
Hofburg
The Hofburg is almost a small town in itself, with 18 wings, 54 stairways, and around 2,600 rooms. Sights include the Kaiserappartments (Imperial Apartments), the Wiltliche und Geistliche Schatzkammer (Sacred and Secular Treasuries), the Chapel, the Spanische Reitschule (Spanish Riding School) and the beautiful Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (Court Library).
Schloss Schonbrunn (Schonbrunn Palace)
Althoug on the western outskirts of the city, most visitors will want to see the magnificent imperial summer palace of the Hapsburgs. Tours include some of the 1,441 lavish rooms, such as the Great Gallery. The landscaped park contains the Palmenhause (Palm House) and Tiergarten (Zoo), with the colonnaded pavilion of the Gloriette set on a mound overlooking the grounds and palace, with superb views.
Stephansdom (St Stephen's Cathedral)
The heart and soul of the city since medieval times, Stephansdom is one of the finest Gothic buildings in Central Europe. You can climb the soaring South Tower and visit the catacombs, but the major sights in the cathedral itself are the pulpit by Franz Anton Pilgram and the late Gothic tomb of Fredrich III. In the 19C, courtesans known as Grabennymphen used to importune cavaliers on the Graben, but now it is the most fashionable street in Vienna. At the center is the magnificent Pestsaule (Plague Column), partly designed by Fischer von Erlach, and just to the east, the Peterskirche by Lucas von Hildebrandt, with superb stucco work by Lorenzo Mattielli.
Schloss Belvedere
Built for the Hapsburgs' greatest general, prince Eugene of Savoy, the Belvedere Palace is the finest and most ambitious example of secular Baroque architecture in the region. It includes the Lower Belvedere, with the Osterreichisches Barockmuseum (Baroque Museum) and the Museum Mittelalterlicher Osterreichischer Kunst (Museum of Medieval Art) in the Orangery, a beautiful park with Alpine and Botanical Gardens attached, and the imposing Upper Belvedere, housing the Osterreichische Galerie (Austrian Art Gallery).
Karlskirche and Karlsplatz
The most notable work of the local Baroque architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and his son, Joseph Emanuel, the church dedicated to St Carlo Borromeo dominated the Karlsplatz. Lit up on a snowy winter's evening it is an unforgettable sight, with its great dome rising beyond the massive Trajanesque columns at the front.
Secession
Joseph Maria Olbirch's idiosyncratic exhibition hall was created for the artists of the Viennese Secession in 1897. It contains Gustav Klimt's remarkable Bethoven Frieze and is used for exhibitions of contemporary art. Since its restoration it is once again resplendant, a Viennese landmark that stands out against the bombastic Ringstrassen architecture in its neighbourhood.
Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts)
One of the greatest collections in Europe, the museum includes not only a superb gallery of pictures acquired by the Hapsburgs, but also the unique collections of applied art, coins and antiquities.
Freyung
This delightful area is flanked by places of great interest for the visitor: the Schottenstift (Monastery of the Scots), with its cloister gallery and the Medieval Schottenaltar (alterpiece), the magnificent Baroque palaces of the Harrach and Kinsky families, and the Freyung arcade designed by Heinrich Ferstel, attached to which is the legendary Café Central. Seven centuries of history are here harmoniously merged in the characteristic Viennese manner.
Grinzing Village
One could choose from a large number of Heuringen villages, with their wine taverns, but Grinzing remains the most charming. At night, its Biedermeier houses and narrow streets are bathed in soft yellow lamplight and the sounds of Schrammelmusik waft from the open windows of the taverns. The village's nostalgic charm and the dirndled waitresses radiating the "golden Viennese heart" make Grinzing hard to resist.
Prater Park
This huge area, once an imperial hunting ground, is now home to the vast funfair known as the Wurstelprater, dominated by the great Riesenrad (Ferris Wheel). Visiitors of all ages wiil find something to amuse here, from roundabouts and dodgems to entertainers such as swardswallowers and magicians.