Vienna – A great piece of history
Vienna Opera House
Vienna, the capital of Austria, is a city of old and new alike, its architecture varies from Baroque buildings to Art Nouveau to contemporary. It is a place that still retain much of its long lasting imperial charm while also being a modern city and hub for the country’s politics, economy and culture.
Vienna was the home of the Habsburg court for all of its various empires across hundreds of years and all of that history has left an important mark on the city, its architecture and its culture as well – Vienna has well over a hundred museums to its name and its historic city center is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
When you’re talking about Imperial Vienna probably the main attraction that one has to have in mind is the Schonbrunn Palace. This used to be Empress Sisi’s summer residence and it’s one of the most impressive Baroque palace complexes in the whole of Europe.
The first summer residence was built here back in 1642, however nothing of that is part of the current complex which was redesigned from the ground up after 1743. When visiting the complex it is rather interesting to pay close attention to the difference in how the living quarters and offices are furnished and decorated as opposed to the state and guest rooms. The latter are considerably more lavish than the first. The Hall of Mirrors is of particular interest and importance as well because in 1772, a six-year-old prodigy by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have a concert there.
Most of the rooms are decorated in the Rococo style, with the Room of Millions probably being the most magnificent such example in the world.
That is just one major example of how Vienna’s past is still part of the city but that doesn’t mean that the place has been stagnant, far from it, especially when it comes to architecture, as if saying that great building projects are not relegated to the past, in recent decades there have been quite a few revolutionary residential buildings erected such as the Haas House in 1990, as well as the Hundertwasser House and the Kunst Haus Wien.
As for the present and future, the Danube City is the largest municipal development project in the city and the MuseumsQuartier will be one of the largest architectural projects of the new century.
