Vienna

Basic information and characteristics of the city:

Vienna is the place where the spirit of Austria's biggest history is still alive. Austria's biggest history, this was the time of the Austrian Empire, and the capital of the empire was Vienna.

But the very first beginning was around the year 500 BC, when Vienna was founded as a Celtic settlement.

In 15 BC Vienna became Roman, and the city was called "Vindobona". During the Middle Ages, Vienna was the capital of the Babenberg Dynasty. In 1440 the Habsburg Dynasty took the power, and Vienna became their residence. The Ottoman-Turkish invasions of Europe in the 1529 and 1683 were stopped twice just outside Vienna.

Vienna is composed in 23 districts which all have their own names: 1st Innere Stadt (city centre), 2nd Leopoldstadt, 3rd Landstrasse, 4th Wieden, 5th Margareten, 6th Mariahilf, 7th Neubau, 8th Josefstadt, 9th Alsergrund, 10th Favoriten, 11th Simmering, 12th Meidling, 13th Hietzing, 14th Penzing, 15th Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, 16th Ottakring, 17th Hernals, 18th Währing, 19th Döbling, 20th Brigittenau, 21th Floridsdorf, 22th Donaustadt and 23th Liesing.

The heart and historical city of Vienna, the Innere Stadt (Inner City), was once surrounded by a mighty city wall. The wall was removed in 1857, and the new space was used for a street around Vienna, todays "Ringstrasse". Imposing buildings, monuments and parks were created along this Ringstrasse, such as Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, and the State Opera.

Vienna is famous for its many parks. Some of these parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark and Belvedere Park with its baroque-style castle. The principal park of Vienna is the Prater, which is situated on an island formed by the Danube River and the canal. Schönbrunn, the beautiful Imperial Summer Palace, includes an 18th century park and the world's oldest zoo (1752).

In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Economist Intelligence Unit study of 127 world cities ranked it third for quality of life.

Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heuriger districts.

There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, BA-CA Kunstforum, the twin Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum, and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.

There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Hapsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, the most famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche and the Votivkirche.

Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.