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.

Hofburg

The Hofburg or Imperial Palace was the home to the Hapsburgs for six centuries. The building is a jumble of various building styles over the centuries as the ruling Hapsburgs kept adding to it. The oldest part of the palace the Swiss Courtyard, dating from the 13th Century and named after the Swiss Guards who used to guard the place. The curvaceous Neue Burg, from which Hitler addressed a rally during his triumphant 1938 visit to Vienna, dates from the massive building period between the second half of the 19th Century and the start of World War I.

The 22 rooms in the Imperial Apartments are stuffed full with all the fine furniture, tapestries and bulbous crystal chandeliers one could imagine being in an Imperial Palace. The sheer wealth exhibited in the Imperial Treasury collection of crown jewels is staggering. One room contains a 2860-carat Colombian emerald, a 416-carat balas ruby and a 492-carat aquamarine. The religious relics include supposed fragments of the True Cross, a nail from the Crucifixion and a thorn from Christ's crown.

The palace contains a number of museums. These include the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments, exhibiting instruments of all shapes and sizes; the Ethnological Museum, with displays on non-European cultures; and the Albertina, a famous and extensive collection of graphic arts. The Gothic Royal Chapel is where the Vienna Boys' Choir sings at Sunday Mass, where viewing is available for a fee.

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Over the centuries, the Hapsburg family collected all sorts of art. Today this collection and more are on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The museum is so huge, that more than one visit is necessary to take it all in.

Rubens, who was once in the service of the Hapsburg Governor of Brussels, is well represented here one of the best collection of his works. The collection of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder is also unrivalled anywhere in the world. Other masters whose works are on display include Canova, Vermeer, Dürer, Rembrandt, Raphael, Van Dyck, Cranach, Caravaggio, Canaletto and Titian. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman pieces are also on display. Finally, sculpture and decorative arts are available for view covering the Austrian high baroque, Renaissance, mannerist and medieval periods, including Cellini's famously over-the-top salt cellar.

Schloss Schönbrunn

This baroque palace was built about 1700 and contains 2000 rooms, of which 40 are available for visitors. There is a sumptuous, landscaped garden. Also, for a separate fee, one can visit a maze and one of the oldest zoos in the world.

The Great Gallery features gilded scrolls, ceiling frescoes, chandeliers and huge crystal mirrors, creating an effect of sheer splendor. Numerous sumptuous balls were held here, including one for the delegates at the Congress of Vienna. The Mirror Room is where Mozart, then aged six, played his first royal concert in the presence of the Emperess Maria Theresa and the royal family in 1762. The Round Chinese Room is where Maria Theresa held secret consultations here: a hidden doorway led to her adviser's apartments and a fully laden table could be drawn up through the floor so the dignitaries could dine without being disturbed by servants.

Spanish Riding School

The prancing Lipizzaner stallions perform in the opulent surroundings of the Hofburg's Winter Riding School. The stallions perform a kind of equine ballet to the sound of classical music. They are part of a long-established Viennese institution that's truly reminiscent of the old Habsburg era. The entrance fee is a bit steep, but worth it for horse lovers. The breed was first imported from Spain, hence 'Spanish', by the Emperor Maximilian II in 1562, and in 1580 a stud was established at Lipizza, hence 'Lipizzaner', now in Slovenia. Tickets to watch the horses train can be bought on the day at gate No 2, Josefsplatz in the Hofburg. They can be seen training for much of the year, except Christmas to mid-February and July and August, though they are sometimes away on tour.

Stephansdom

This church was re-created in Gothic style at the behest of Duke Rudolf IV in 1359, who laid the foundation stone and earned himself the epithet of 'The Founder' in the process. The south tower or the Südturm took 75 years to build and was to be matched by a companion tower on the north side, but the imperial purse withered and the Gothic style went out of fashion, so the half-completed tower was topped off with a Renaissance cupola in 1579. Austria's largest bell, the Pummerin or 'boomer bell' was installed here in 1952. The Südturm is a dominating feature of the church and has a cramped viewing platform that is worth getting to for the wonderful view of the city. Another striking feature of the exterior of the church is the glorious tiled roof, showing dazzling chevrons on one end and the Austrian eagle on the other.

Baden

26 kilometers outside Vienna, the spa town of Baden dei Wien is on the edge of the Vienna Woods. It has served visitors wanting to take the waters since Roman times, when it was called Aquae. Today the town is still the place to promenade between the Kurpark's bandstand, benches and elaborate flowerbeds, to admire affluent 19th-century housing and to learn about the past in the museums devoted to Emperor Franz Josef, Beethoven and Baden itself. The writer M. G. Saphir called Baden a miniature Vienna in Watercolor

Visiting Vienna

Vienna is serviced by a major airport and also has rail connections to virtually every city in Europe. Bus travel is cheaper and less comfortable and, as Vienna has no central bus hub, your arrival point is dependant on the bus company. Vienna has a comprehensive and unified public transport network that is one of the most efficient in Europe. Flat-fare tickets are valid for trains, trams, buses, the underground (U-Bahn) and the S-Bahn regional trains. Services are frequent, and you rarely have to wait more than five or 10 minutes. Every month except for July, August, and February are good times to visit Vienna, though most prefer the less crowded Spring and Fall months.

Vienna is a great place for attending classical music concerts and the opera, as is befitting the music capital of the world. Check in advance with your travel agent for tickets and venues.