Vienna Things to Do Tips by kris-t

There are buildings of all architectural styles in Vienna, from the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche to the Baroque Karlskirche, and classicist buildings all the way through to modern architecture. Likewise, Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession, Karlsplatz Metropolitan Railway Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world.

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Address: Vienna

Kunsthistorisches Museum -The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) in Vienna, is located on Ringstrabe. The term Kunsthistorisches Museum applies to both the institution and the main building.

It was opened in 1891 at the same time as the Naturhistorisches Museum by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. The two museums have identical exteriors and face each other across Maria-Theresien-Platz. Both buildings were built between 1872 and 1891 according to plans drawn up by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer.

The two Ringstrabe museums were ordered to be built by the Emperor in order to find a suitable shelter for the Habsburgs' formidable art-collection and to make it accessible to the general public. The façade was built of sandstone. The building is rectangular in shape, and topped with a dome that is 60 meters high. The inside of the building is lavishly decorated with marble, stucco ornamentations, gold-leaf, and paintings, making it a spectacular work of art in its own right.

One of the museum's most important sculptures, the Saliera by Benvenuto Cellini, was stolen on May 11, 2003 and recovered on January 21, 2006, in a box buried in a forest near the town of Zwettl, Austria. It had been the the biggest art-theft in Austrian history....

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Phone: (+43 1) 525 24-0
Address: various museums
Directions: Opening times:
Tuesday - Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Coin cabinet closes at 6 p.m.)
Website: http://www.khm.at/homeE/homeE.html
Other Contact: info@khm.at

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music. His enormous output includes works that are widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Many of his works are part of the standard concert repertory and are widely recognized as masterpieces of the classical style.

In 1781 Mozart visited Vienna in the company of his employer, the harsh Prince-Archbishop Colloredo, and soon fell out with him. According to Mozart's own testimony, he was dismissed - literally - "with a kick in the seat of the pants." Mozart chose to settle and develop his career in Vienna after its aristocracy began to take an interest in him.

Mozart spent 1786 in Vienna in an apartment (in the "Mozarthaus") which may be visited today at Domgasse 5 behind St Stephen's Cathedral; it was here that Mozart composed Le nozze di Figaro. He followed this in 1787 with one of his greatest works, Don Giovanni.

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Phone: 222/713 99 51
Address: A-1030 Wien, Lothringerstrasse 20
Directions: Advance tickets can be purchased from young guys roaming in costume near the front of St. Stephen's cathedral.

The Stephansdom (Cathedral of Saint Stephen), in Vienna, Austria, is the seat of a Roman Catholic Archbishop, a beloved symbol of Vienna and the site of many important events in Austria's national life.
The cathedral was first built as a parish church in 1147 and rebuilt and enlarged over the centuries, with major new work concluding in 1511, but repair and restoration has continued from the beginning to the present day.

It had previously been thought that the church had been built in an open field outside the city walls, but during excavations for a long-awaited heating system during 2000, graves carbon-dated to the fourth century were found 8 feet (2.5 m) below the surface. The 430 skeletons were then moved to the catacombs. Thousands of others must have been buried in the ancient cemetery of this neighborhood starting in Roman times, and this (instead of St. Ruprecht's Church) could be the oldest church site in Vienna.

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Address: St.Stephens cathedral

the baroque castle of Prinz Eugen - The Belvedere is a baroque palace complex built by Prince Eugene of Savoy in the 3rd district of Vienna, south-east of the city center.

After buying the plot of land in 1697, Prince Eugene had a large park created. The Schloss Belvedere began as a suburban entertainment villa: in 1714 work began to erect what is now called the Lower Belvedere, not as a palace but as a garden villa, with an orangerie and paintings gallery, with suitable living quarters. The architect was Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, one of the most important architects of the Austrian Baroque, who produced in the complex of buildings his masterwork.
In 1720-1723, the Upper Belvedere was built, originally intended simply to provide a suitable end to the main garden axis. The architect was again Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. Once again there is a central Marmorsaal?the site of the signing of the treaty the formed modern Austria, May 15, 1955?but the schloss was soon enlarged to provide the main summer residence of Prince Eugene. Its painted ceilings are by Carlo Carlone, with an altarpiece in the chapel by Francesco Solimena.

The complex was sold in 1752 to Maria Theresa by the prince's heiress. Maria Theresa first named the schloss "Belvedere". Under the Habsburgs it was further extended. Since 1775, the Belvedere has housed the imperial picture gallery on behalf of Joseph II, and in 1806 the collection of Ambras Palace was moved to the Lower Belvedere as well. Both were transferred to the Museum of Art History (Kunsthistorisches Museum) in 1890. The last to reside here was Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Since World War I, the Austrian Gallery museum resides in the Belvedere.

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Phone: +43/1/79 557-0
Address: Prinz Eugen-Str. 27, 1030 Vienna
Directions: Train: Südbahnhof; Westbahnhof and then by underground (U3) to Stephansplatz, followed by the U1 line to Südtirolerplatz and then one stop by tram (numbers 18 or 0) to Südbahnhof
Website: http://www.belvedere.at/en/index.htm

The Schönbrunn Palace (Schloss Schönbrunn) in Vienna is one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria and since the 1860s has also been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna.

In the year 1569 the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II purchased the Katterburg which was located on a large area between Meidling and Hietzing where today Schönbrunn's parks and different buildings are situated. He showed interest in the newly founded zoo, the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, and tried to establish not only a systematic maintenance of wild animals, but also a plantation of rare and exotic plants. He is justifiably called the creator of Schönbrunn's garden arrangement.

After the downfall of the monarchy in 1918 the newly founded Austrian Republic became the owner of Schönbrunn Palace and preserved the beautiful rooms and chambers as a museum for the visitors.

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Address: the summer-residence of the emperor
Website: http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/site/publicdir/
Other Contact: webmaster@schoenbrunn.at