Facts about Vienna

The city is located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Danube River-the second longest river in Europe.

It also forms a separate state - the Republic of Austria is a federation of nine states.

Street and square nameplates display the district numbers.

It is the seat of the Australian parliament, president, government, religious associations, societies, organizations, universities, and businesses.

The Complex consists of 6 office buildings of similar architectural form, built on a Y-shaped plan. The tallest of the edifices measures 120 meters high and has 28 floors. The center is a workplace for some 5000 people. The VIC has its own subway station and a small church. The Austria Center Vienna conference center is also located in close proximity.

Their headquarters are located outside the VIC (Vienna Internationale Center) complex.

In 2020, Vienna had a population of 1.911.191. The population density per square kilometer is 4607 people.

The remaining percentage is made up of foreigners, of whom there are more than 386.000 in Vienna.

These were Austro-Hungarian citizens.

Around 15 BC, this settlement was conquered by the Romans, who set up a camp of the 10th Legion called Castrum Vindobona on the right bank of the Danube. This was to protect the Roman Empire from invasions by Germanic tribes from the north.

There, Emperor Commodus made peace with the Marcomans and Quads (Germanic peoples), ending the Marcomans Wars (a series of armed conflicts between the Roman Empire and Germanic tribes between 167 and 180). Eventually, Vindobona was destroyed by the Germanic tribes in the 5th century.

In the early Middle Ages, the city was ruled by the Austrian Babenberg dynasty, and after the dynasty expired, the reign was taken over by the Ottokar II of Bohemia, during whose reign the city’s economy flourished.

During the reign of Rudolf IV the Founder of the Habsburg dynasty, the construction of St. Stephen’s Cathedral (the pride and one of the symbols of the city) began, and a university was established.

For five years of his reign, the city served as the capital of Hungary. After the death of Matthias Corvinus, the city was recaptured by the Habsburgs.

It was even compared to the Tower of Babel (Wolfgang Schmeltzl, playwright), for Greek, Latin, French, Turkish, Spanish, Czech, Lusatian, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Aramaic could be heard there.

These defensive walls were dismantled after Franz Joseph took power in Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was established. In their place, the city’s representative street Ringstrase was built.

During the relief of Vienna-the Battle of Vienna-fought on 12th September 1683, between the Polish and Imperial armies under the command of King John III Sobieski and the army of the Ottoman Empire under vizier Kara Mustafa, a breakthrough was achieved, as a result of which the Turks suffered defeat, went on the defensive and ceased to pose a threat to the Christian part of Europe.

This religious-political-social movement initiated by Martin Luther, aimed at the renewal of Christianity, was a reaction to the negative phenomena that took place in the Catholic church hierarchy and was also an opposition to Catholic dogmatic doctrine. An important role in the development of the Reformation was played by the Hussite movement, which was initiated in the 15th century by Jan Hus - a Czech clergyman, philosopher, Church reformer, precursor of Protestantism, and Czech national hero.

Augustine was a street musician who fell into a gutter one night in a state of alcoholic intoxication, after which he ended up in a mass grave, along with the bodies of the victims of the epidemic. Augustine did not contract the plague, which was attributed to the salutary effects of alcohol in his body. To this day, Augustine is mentioned in the folk chant Ohdu Lieber Augustin.

This monumental votive monument was founded by Emperor Leopold I in gratitude to God for ending the plague that had previously raged in London and Naples. The corpses of people who died from the plague were hastily buried there. The first column was made of wood (1687-1693), later replaced by a marble one.

At that time there was a significant development of trade, industry, culture, and art.

It was convened to review the territorial and political changes caused by the outbreak of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and to work out new principles of continental order. The Congress of Vienna was ironically called the Dancing Congress because of the many balls that accompanied it.

In addition to the dismantling of the city walls and the construction of the Ringstrase, along which representative public buildings were built, including the city hall, the Burgtheater, the university, the parliament, the Museum of Art History, and the opera house, Vienna gained a shipping connection to Budapest, operated by the Danube Steam Navigation  Society.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Vienna also became a bastion of socialism and was nicknamed “Red Vienna.” At the time, the city was ruled by the Socialist Party of Austria, which implemented a 65.000-unit municipal housing program, as well as a program to establish urban green spaces and introduced education reform. At the time, the Werkbund housing development was established, where workers did not have to nestle in cloisters without windows or running water.

He convinced the Austrians of Austria’s importance to the Reich. The Anschluss - the annexation of the Federal State of Austria by the German Reich, in violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles - then occurred. Vienna lost its function as capital to Berlin.

Like Berlin, it was divided into four occupation zones: Russian, American, British and French. The first district-the Center-was under joint control. When the Austrian State Treaty was signed on 15th May 1955, the occupation zones were abolished.

During the siege of Vienna in 1683, Kulczycki, disguised as an Ottoman soldier and singing Turkish songs under his breath, passed through the enemy camp, sneaked out of the besieged city and contacted Prince Charles V Leopold of Lorraine, whose reply announcing relief he carried to the besieged. The news dissuaded the city’s residents. The city council rewarded him with a considerable sum of money (100 ducats), and he also received a house on the Leopoldstadt estate. King John III Sobieski allowed him to choose as a reward any item from the camp of the defeated enemy. Kulczycki chose 300 sacks of “strange grain,” which the victors intended to throw away, thinking it was camel food. Meanwhile, the sacks contained a supply of coffee. Emperor Leopold bestowed on him the title of imperial translator of the Turkish language. He also received an exemption from taxes for 20 years.

In this establishment, to commemorate his victory over the Turks, he was said to have served crescent-shaped cookies to guests, himself appearing in Turkish costume. He is credited with sweetening his coffee with honey and, above all, with flavoring his coffee with milk. Other sources say that the first owner of a coffee shop in the Habsburg Empire was an Armenian, Johannes Diodato (of Johannes Theodat), from 1685.

There are 990 city parks there. Thanks to the Vienna Forest complex and the Danube area, almost half of Vienna’s total area is green (the greenest district is Hietzing, where about 70 percent of its area is green). These green areas consist of meadows, parks, vineyards, forests, fields, and gardens. From the city center, you can reach the nearest recreational areas (such as Danube Island) in 15 minutes.

More cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, parsley, and chili peppers are harvested here than in the rest of Austria combined.

City bicycles can be rented at 121 stations.

Vines are grown there by about 400 growers on an area of about 700 hectares, with white wine in 80 percent of the area and red wine in 20 percent. Vineyards are planted with rose bushes, which indicate mold infestation earlier than grapevines, and growers can react more quickly.

Most of Vienna’s wine is sold locally. Vienna’s culture of taverns serving young Heuriger wine is part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage as of 2019.

These include Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonio Salieri, and others. Also associated with the city are Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss - father and son, Franz Lehar, Gustav Mahler, and others.

Every year on 1st January, the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concerts are broadcast from Vienna. The concerts have been continuously performed every year since the beginning of World War II and are mainly dedicated to composers from the Strauss family.

The university was founded by Rudolf IV, and the modern organization of the university was introduced by Franz Joseph. The university library has more than 2 million volumes. At the University of Vienna, Galeazzo de Sancta Sophia of Padua and his Austrian student J. Aygel conducted the first groundbreaking autopsies in 1365.

The capital is also home to Austria’s largest technical university, the Technical University, founded in 1815 by Franz II Habsburg.

With its scientific achievements and worldwide reputation, the AKH Public Hospital attracts numerous congresses to Vienna. The world’s smallest inner ear implant was implanted at this hospital. Four doctors at this hospital won four Nobel Prizes in the 20th century.

The Neubau district (7) is home to the 90.000-square-meter Museum Quartier (Museum Quarter) architectural complex, making it one of the largest of its kind in the world. More than three million tourists visit it annually.

The opera house opened on 25th May 1869, with a production of Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni.”

Emperor Joseph II made the former Habsburg hunting grounds available to the public in 1766, which gave rise to the park. It currently covers an area of about 1700 hectares. The Prater is home to a sports stadium and a funfair, which is Europe’s largest amusement park. Near the entrance to the park is a large-scale carousel in the form of a Ferris wheel. It is one of the oldest devices of its kind-erected in 1897.

This flight had no military significance, only propaganda, both in Italy and abroad. In addition to the dropped leaflets, the pilot took about 60 aerial photos of Vienna. The inhabitants of the city collected leaflets and their price immediately after the raid was 20 crowns and more. Policemen and soldiers also collected them, and the press reminded them that possessing them was high treason. A few days after the raid, leaflets became more expensive and their price was 100 crowns.

Vienna is one of the most visited cities in Europe.

Its existence as a salon dance began in 1815, during the Congress of Vienna (due to the numerous balls that accompanied it, it was ironically called the “dancing congress”). When this faster version of the waltz (tempo: approx. 60 bars/min), full of fast swirls, was danced in front of the court in Vienna for the first time, the reactions were different. Ladies ostentatiously left the ballroom, considering it immoral to embrace each other in public while dancing, others believed that constant spinning while dancing could cause various diseases and even lead to death. Despite these reservations, until the mid-19th century, the Viennese waltz was an integral part of balls at courts in almost all of Europe, except for England and Switzerland, where it was long forbidden. The music created by Johannes Strauss (Imperial Waltz, The Blue Danube) had a special contribution to the development of the waltz. The Viennese waltz is the oldest competition standard dance.

In 1832, in the chef’s absence, the junior cook at Prince Matternich’s court, Franz Sacher, was ordered to create a new dessert for the prince and his guests. He then developed a recipe for a chocolate cake layered with apricot marmalade and covered with chocolate icing. To this day, this cake is called the “king of desserts” by many. Currently, the Sacher Hotel has the exclusive right to use the name “Sacher Torte,” and the recipe for the original cake is the hotel’s best-kept secret.

For almost half a century (1891-1938), Sigmund Freud lived and worked in a classic tenement house in Vienna’s Hochgrunderzeit. During these years, Freud’s family moved many times to different floors of the tenement house. The greatest works were created here (“The Interpretation of Dreams,” “On Psychoanalysis,” “Ego and Id” and others). The famous Psychological Society of Wednesdays-the first psychoanalytic study group was held here. After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Freud had to escape from Vienna to London, where he died at the age of 83 (suffering from cancer)-he ended his life with an overdose of morphine with the help of a doctor friend.