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Last Updated: 03. Mai 2000
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Austria
Vienna and Art Nouveau
Along the Blue Danube
Tour of Ringstrasse and Vienna
The Spanish Riding School
St. Stephansplatz
Belvedere Palace
Prater and the Giant Ferris Wheel
Art Nouveau and Hundertwasser
Schloss Schönbrunn
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Vienna is the jewel of Austria. In the past, it was the capital of a far-flung empire and showed off the glory of the empire. Thus, it owes much to the mix of colorful cultures. There are impressive architecture, wonderful museums, and world famous music tradition. This is a city that gave birth to wonders in art, medicine, philosophy, and social change.
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Along the Blue Danube
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There are two ways to go from Salzburg to Vienna, the autobahn or along the Danube. Travel along the Danube. We drove along the Danube on one Austria's national holidays, so everyone was riding bikes along the Danube.
Along the Danube, there are many interesting cities and towns. Wels. was an important colonial town in Roman times. The historical Stadtplatz is considered the jewel of the town and one of Austria's most attractive enclosed squares. Further on, Linz has a picturesque old town center. Here the route can follow the Danube valley. Along the road we found a stone sculpture of Knights in Travel. The Danube was the major thoroughfare for the Crusades. Traveling through the Wachau valley, one can see wine fields, quaint small towns and castles. Duernstein is known for the castle where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned in 1192. Other towns to see are Krems and Melk. Finally, we arrived in Klosterneuburg. This city developed around the Abby, founded in 1106. The present Abby is built in baroque style. In this town there is a fine campground which is only a short walk to the train station to get to downtown Vienna.
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Tour of Ringstrasse and Vienna
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After arriving in Vienna, we took a tram around the Ringstrasse, which is a good way to orient to the city. Most of the main sights lie within or on the Ringstrasse. We started at the Opera. First is a tall fountain at Schwartzenberg Platz. The statue is of Prince Charles Schwartzenberg who gave Napoleon his first defeat in Europe. Beyond that is the Russian memorial built in 1945 to 'thank' the Russians for liberating Austria. It's generally ignored today.
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Then comes the Stadtpark. Statues dot the park honoring Viennese composers, musicians and others. The most visited statue is the gilded Johann Strauss playing his violin. Next to the Stadtpark is the Kursalon where the Strauss brothers directed many waltzes. We hopped off the tram in order to get a closer view of the statue of Strauss. This park is a great place for people watching - especially the tourist trying to get a picture of the Strauss statue.
Further down is the Urania, which was Franz Josef's observatory. Then comes the Danube. This is really the Danube canal. This area was the site of the Roman settlement Vindobona.
On Schottenring is the neo-Renaissance stock exchange, the Börse. Next is the neo-Gothic church built in 1853. When we were in Vienna, it was the only major church in Europe not draped with scaffolding. Next to the church is Vienna University. Then comes the neo-Gothic City Hall towering over the Rathaus Platz. Across the street is the Hofburg Theater. Further along the ring is the Neo-Classical Austrian parliament with Athena out front with the gold helmet.
Further is the natural History Museum and across the Platz is the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Between the two is a statue of Maria Theresa. With twelve children, many married off to other European ruling families, some have called her the 'Mother of Europe'. The Kunsthistoriches Museum is a must see museum. It houses the great Habsburg collection of work by Dürer, Rubens, Titan, Rapheal and Brueghel. In fact, it may house the best collection of Rubens work and an unrivalled collection of Peter Brueghel the Elder. The ceiling, painted in four different styles is stunning. One could spend hours in this museum.
Between here and the Opera is the Burggarten and statues of Goethe and Schiller in front of the Academy of Fine Arts, which has a small collection of works by Bosch, Botticelli and Rubens among others.
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The Spanish Riding School
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The splendid Baroque hall provides a spectucular setting for the performances of the Spanish Riding School and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Vienna. The Lippizanner Museum is in the Stallburg Palace and provides a 400-year history of the Riding School. The morning training of the Lipizzans is open to the public without prior reservations.
The Spanish part of the institution's name comes from the breed of Moorish riding horses Emperor Maximilian II imported from Spain in 1562. In 1580, the stud farm at Lipizza near Trieste was established, hence the name Lipizzans for this breed. At the end of World War II, U.S. Army General George S. Patton, Jr. ordered a raid that removed the horses from an area about to be taken by Soviet troops, thus assuring the continuation of the superb old bloodlines.
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St. Stephansplatz
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From the Opera, follow Kärntner Strasse, which is full of shops, trees, cafes and entertainment, to Stephanpatz. There the pride of Vienna can be see, St. Stephansdom or St. Stephen's Cathedral. The church generally survived WWII until the last days. Then the fires that swept through the city burned the original Gothic rooftop. After the war, the people rallied around St. Stephan's and this symbol of Austria was rebuilt by 1952. The ceramic tiles are decorative, a copy of the original design, and bear the names of the contributors. Inside photos of the war damage can be seen. The interior of the church is grand. The stone pulpit in the middle of the church is supported by Church Fathers, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, and St. Augustine.
Outside the church, on St. Stephansplatz there is an interesting building. on the corner. A modern style can be seen along with the influences of the Jugendstil. Jungendstil is a term used to describe the Art Nouveau style that predominates in this area of Europe. The interior is wonderful especially if you travel up to the top floors.
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Belvedere Palace
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Outside the ring, not far from the Sudbahnhof is the Belvedere Palace. This was the Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy and later the home of Franz Ferdinand. Today it houses the Austrian Gallery of 19th and 20th Century Art. The gardens are wonderful to walk around in and the top floor of the Upper Palace has a great view of the city. There is a fine collection of Jugendstil art, Klimt and Kokaschka in the Upper Palace, well worth a visit.
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Prater and the Giant Ferris Wheel
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Finally, across the Danube Canal is the Prater. The giant ferris wheel build in 1897 dominates this large amusement park. It is featured in The Third Man. The red cars of this ferris wheel are almost as big as most busses. It is well worth the price to take the slow moving ferris wheel and have great view of the city and the area. The Prater is a wonderful place to wander and try the other rides. While riding the Ferris Wheel, we inspected each amusement and decided what ride would be the next choice. It was a difficult decision because all the rides looked so grand.
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Art Nouveau and Hundertwasser
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Walking around Vienna, we stopped often to see yet another building or fountain or architectural feature that was created in the style of Jugenstil. Known as Art Nouveau in French-speaking countries, the "Youth Style" received its German name from Jugend, a magazine in the vanguard of art that propagated the new fashion. Its roots were many: William Morris, an English craftsman who is famous for his fabrics decorated in floral designs; Beardsley, an illustrator who created delicately executed drawings and Japanese woodcuts with their elegant lines and taut planes. In Vienna, Gustav Klimt and others left the traditionalists guild of fine artists in 1897 and founded their own association, "Secession". Otto Wagner soon put his stamp on architectural Vienna, achieving a breakthrough for the new style with the new metropolitan railway station at Karlsplatz in the style of Jugendstil.
Because the Jugendstil was so prominent in Vienna, it is easy to find many architectural features in the Jugendstil style. Actually, it was like a treasure hunt; we found many prizes. Another building in the style of the Jugenstil is the Kunstforum.
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In addition to the Jugendstil, we explored another artist/architect, Hundertwasser. Friendensreich Hundertwasser, painter and environmentalist, was commissioned to design a municipal housing project. Much of the structure, which contains 50 apartments, is freeform, emphasizing natural materials, and terraces, and balconies where grass and trees grow. Construction had to overcome the challenge of translating the artist's ideas into a housing project conforming to housing regulations. The façade, the windows, the interior walls and the floors exhibit irregularities which Hundertwasser often intentionally worked into the design while the work was in progress. It looks like it would be enjoyable to live in the housing project.
KunstHausWien is another building remodeled by Hundertwasser. A former factory building of the Thonet bentwood furniture company was completely remodeled in the Hundertwasser style. There is a restaurant/café, museum shop and interesting fountain on the ground floor and a permanent exhibition representing a survey of Hundertwasser's work.
A famous quote from Hundertwasser:
Die gerade Linie ist Gottlos.
("The straight line is God-less")
From the quote, one can assume that his style utilized many curves. In fact, there are very few, if any, straight lines in his buildings. Even the floors have dips and curves, the floor is not even or straight.
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Schloss Schönbrunn
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This was the Habsburgs summer residence and is about 7 km. outside the center of town. This is really the only palace that comes close to rivaling Versailles. The exterior is Baroque but the interior is Rococo style. The walls are thick enough to allow servants to have passageways to stoke the stoves from the back and move from area to area without being seen. Maria Theresa seemed like a much more reasonable person than either King Louis XIV or especially Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria. She was also the married off her daughters to neighboring kings, thus becoming one of the first demonstrations of peaceful resistance.
The palace gardens are a wonder to stroll. The sculpted gardens lead past Europe's oldest zoo up to the Gloriette, a decorative monument to an obscure Austrian military victory.
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Die Fotogalerie von der Österreich
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