Austria’s wonderful capital Vienna is located at the “Blue” Danube at the very foothills of the Alps. The city is a smorgasbord of Baroque with a dash of art nouveau. The buildings are one of the many remnants of the artistic and intellectual flowering that took place in Vienna at the turn of the century.

Vienna (German: Vienna) is the capital of Austria, with a population of about 1.6 million.Vienna is by far the largest city in Austria as well as its cultural, economic and political centre. It lies in the south-eastern corner of Central Europe and is close to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

The pulse of the city can be found along Ringstrasse. As you walk around the area be sure to take a break at a sidewalk cafe and have one of the city’s superb pastries. The Viennese invented cafe society and there is no better pastime than to linger over a torte, read a newspaper and watch the Viennese. Each café has its own personality; while the lavish cafes inside the Ringstrasse are most impressive the smaller ones just outside have a charm and authenticity that shouldn’t be missed.

After a coffee you should be ready to visit one of the many world-class museums along the Ring. The Kunsthistorisches Museum has works of art by Bruegel, Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Titian as well as Roman and Egyptian antiquities. Just across the plaza is the Naturhistorisches Museum which has the 25 000-year-old Venus of Willendorf . The Museum of Applied Art located farther down the Ring has an amazing one-million piece-collection of Rococo Baroque and Jugendstil furniture glass porcelain and fabric. Just off the Ring is the brilliant Secession Building one of the must-sees of Vienna.

If the Ringstrasse is the pulse of the city the Innere Stadt (the old city) is the heart. This is where the city’s main attractions are located. For an overview climb the bell tower of the 450-ft-/137-m-high St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Between St. Stephen’s and the State Opera House is Karntnerstrasse Vienna’s main shopping street.

Every year orchestras from around the world take part in The Vienna International Festival. Churches mansions and palaces across the city host more than 150 different concerts ranging from sacred music to opera and choral music to symphony.

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Texts partly derived from Wikitravel