Rising from Vienna's old city center, just beyond where the stone walls of the Roman camp once stood, the predominantly Gothic St. Stephan's Cathedral continues to tower over the hearts and minds of the Viennese as it has for some 800 years. Radiating away from the Stephansdom is a number of little streets as intricately connected as the threads of a spider's web. And within the web, more churches, museums, palaces, boutiques, galleries, antique shops, coffeehouses, sidewalk cafes, and restaurants await the visitor. It doesn't really matter which direction one choose to walk when wandering about. The old Inner City holds endless delights.
Encircling the Inner City is a broad boulevard called the Ring. Amongst the treasures lining the Ring is the State Opera House. For many Viennese, the soul of Vienna resides within its elegant interior. The opera in Vienna is reasonably egalitarian. There are innumerable museums in Vienna. But the greatest of them all is the Kunsthistorische Museum located further down the Ring. Its massive collections include a wealth of art by Rembrandt, Raphael, Bosch, Titian, Rubens, and Vermeer, as well as the largest collection of Brueghel in the entire world. And competing with the richness of its art, the intricately designed marble halls of the museum are quite breathtaking.
Just bang opposite is the Natural History Museum chock-full of curiosities. Dinosaur skeletons, stuffed mammals, birds, and fish, minerals, one of the oldest prehistoric sculptures in the world, the Venus of Willendorf, and unique painted skulls from Hallstatt graves, treasures all.
Between the two museums is the commanding memorial to the 18th century Habsburg ruler Maria Theresia who sits high on her throne surrounded by her ministers and generals. Across the street, the spacious grounds of Heldenplatz lead to the Hofburg, formerly the imperial palace.
The mixture of styles along the Ring blends into a surprisingly harmonious study of European architectural history, ranging from the neo-Grecian style Parliament to the neo-Gothic Rathaus, the neo-Renaissance Burg Theater to the neo-Baroque Imperial Palace, enhanced by the elegance of the formal gardens of the Burggarten and the Volksgarten.
The mighty Alps that stretch across Europe from France through Italy, Switzerland, and Austria end in the foothills making up the Vienna Woods, part of which lie within Vienna's city limits. Some of the world's greatest musicians walked these paths. Haydn, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and the Strauss's regularly took advantage of these walks to clear their minds and create some of the finest music ever written. Johann Strauss the Younger immortalized the natural beauty of these forests with his 'Tales of the Vienna Woods'.
Beneath the visible splendor of Vienna's art, music, and architecture, lies an even richer life that is seldom noticed by its many visitors: The quality of day-to-day life for the majority of Vienna's citizens. The citizen's of Vienna lead a peaceful life with a low crime rate and clean streets and atmosphere. |
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