Vienna: The Capital of Austria

Grandiose Vienna was the showpiece of the all-conquering Habsburg dynasty. Monumental edifices line the city centre, world-class museums burst with treasures, white stallions strut their way down mirrored halls and renowned orchestras and angelic choirboys perform in lavish concert halls.

Vienna has plenty of lower-brow pleasures too - walks in the woods, splish-splashing high jinks on the river, slap-up indulgent evenings in its renowned wine taverns. If you can’t find something to please you in this generous, opulent, open-armed city, you’re ready for the grave.

Cultureheads of every stripe will swoon over Vienna, but music lovers in particular will be in ecstacy. This is the city that nurtured the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Brahms and Mahler, among others. This heritage has an almost physical presence, and music is still a driving force in today’s city.

Area: 415 sq km
Population: 1.6 million
Country: Austria
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +1 (Central European Time)
Telephone Area Code: 01

Orientation
Vienna stands imperiously in the Danube Valley, with the rolling hills of the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods) undulating beyond the suburbs in the north and west. The Danube River divides the city into two unequal halves, with the old city centre and most tourist sights south of the river. The Danube Canal (Donaukanal) branches off from the main river and winds a sinewy course south, forming one of the borders of the historic centre, known as the Innere Stadt. The rest of the old centre is encircled by the Ringstrasse, or Ring, a series of broad roads sporting sturdy public buildings. Beyond the Ring is a larger traffic artery, the Gürtel (literally meaning ‘belt’), which is fed by the flow of vehicles from the outlying motorways. The city’s principal landmark is the distinctively slender spire of Stephansdom in the heart of the Innere Stadt. The majority of hotels, pensions, restaurants and bars are in the Innere Stadt and west of the centre between the Gürtel and the Ringstrasse.

When to Go

There’s almost always something happening in Vienna, making it a year-round destination. Weatherwise you might want to miss January’s chill, and July and August’s heat - you won’t be able to see the Lipizzaners and the Boys’ Choir in those summer months anyway. June and September are particularly good times to visit, though you’ll find that everyone else thinks so too, making things somewhat busy. As always, it’s a good idea to opt for the less-crowded spring/autumn shoulder months of April-May and October-November.

Events

Naturally enough, in Vienna the cycle of music festivals is unceasing. In January, New Year concerts consist of lavish balls. February brings Fasching (Carnival), which celebrates the return of spring with masked processions and dances. Corpus Christi (the second Thursday after Whitsun) is heralded with more carnivals, some held on lakes in the Salzkammergut. The Vienna International Festival (from mid-May to mid-June) has a wide-ranging programme of arts and is considered the highlight of the year. Midsummer night’s celebrations on 21 June light up the sky with magnificent bonfires.