Vienna has hundreds of years of imperial glory under the Hapsburg family and that is reflected in its sumptuous palaces and monuments. But is is also known as the capital of classical music, as befitting the town of Mozart, Beethoven, and Strauss
The Danube Valley
has been inhabited for thousands of years, as indicated by the discovery about
a century ago of the 25,000-year-old fertility statuette known as the Venus
of Willendorf. The Celts built
settlements as early as the year 500 BC. The Romans showed up in 9 AD and built
a fort called Vindobona. The Romans withdrew about the year 500 AD and
the area was fought over by a succession of barbarian tribes. The Emperor
Charlemagne established an outpost east of modern Vienna
in the year 803.
Vienna is first
noted as a city in 1137 when it was ruled by the Bavarian Babenberg dukes.
After the death of the last Duke the area was fought over for forty years until
the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf of Hapsburg. Rudolf granted his two sons the
fiefdoms of Austria
and Styria in 1282, and one of the most powerful dynasties in history was born.
The Hapsburgs increased their rule over the surrounding area until they became
Archdukes. By the early 16th Century, the Hapsburgs ruled an Empire.
The Empire was split between two brothers, Ferdinand, who took Austria,
and Charles who took everything else.
Vienna suffered
repeated attacks by the Ottoman Turks, who brought with them a strange brew
called coffee that has become a Viennese favorite. In the 18th and
19th Centuries, Vienna
became a musical capital with such luminaries as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and
Schubert calling the city home. Napoleon occupied the city for a while, but
after the fall of the Corsican Tyrant, it became the venue of the Congress of
Vienna which settled the map of Europe in the wake of
the Napoleonic Wars. After the revolution of 1848, Vienna
renewed its place as a capital of art and music, with names such as Strauss,
Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Moser, Mahler and the Wiener Werkstätte being added to
the city's pantheon of big achievers.
The First World War saw the fall of the Hapsburg dynasty. Austria
suffered even more under Nazi rule and the aftermath of World War II where, for
a time, it was jointly occupied by the Soviets and the Western Allies. In
modern times, Vienna is still
coming to terms with its Nazi past while trying to mitigate its staid image
with a bit of modern zest.