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Line 1: − − First settled by the Celts around 500 B.C., Vienna was an important settlement in the Roman Empire, which called it Vindobona. By the 16th century, it was the seat of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], ruled by the Hapsburg dynasty, which continued to reign into the early years of the 20th-century. In the "Anschluss" of 1938, Vienna capitulated under control of the [[Third Reich]]. After [[WWII]], the city was governed by the [[Allied Commission for Austria]] for three years. (Like Germany, Austria became divided into an American, British, French and Russian zone, and this division was mimicked by the administration of Vienna.) Since 1948, Vienna has been the capital of the Republic of Austria. − − It has one of the richest cultural histories of any city in [[Europe]], with a particularly impressive musical tradition - the First Viennese School of composers consisted of [[Haydn]], [[Mozart]], [[Beethoven]] and [[Schubert]], whilst the [[Waltz|waltzes]] of [[Johann Strauss]] Jr. came to epitomize the city. Line 10:
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reorganized, expanded History and Culture section
'''Vienna''' ([[German]]: Wien) is the capital of [[Austria]]. With 1,600,000 inhabitants, it's by far the biggest city of Austria - [[Graz]] (population: 250,000) comes second. The [[Danube]] flows through Vienna.
'''Vienna''' ([[German]]: Wien) is the capital of [[Austria]]. With 1,600,000 inhabitants, it's by far the biggest city of Austria - [[Graz]] (population: 250,000) comes second. The [[Danube]] flows through Vienna.
Today, Vienna is home to several important international organizations: the [[United Nations]], [[OPEC]], and the International Atomic Energy Association.
Today, Vienna is home to several important international organizations: the [[United Nations]], [[OPEC]], and the International Atomic Energy Association.
[[Image:Stephansdom.jpg|thumb|left|340px|St. Stephens Cathedral under renovation in 2007.]]
[[Image:Stephansdom.jpg|thumb|left|340px|St. Stephens Cathedral under renovation in 2007.]]
==History and Culture==
First settled by the Celts around 500 B.C., Vienna was an important settlement in the Roman Empire, which called it Vindobona. By the 16th century, it was the seat of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], ruled by the Hapsburg dynasty, which continued to reign into the early years of the 20th-century. In the "Anschluss" of 1938, Vienna capitulated under control of the [[Third Reich]]. After [[WWII]], the city was occupied by the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] for three years. Since 1948, Vienna has been the capital of the Republic of Austria.
Vienna has one of the richest cultural histories of any city in [[Europe]], with a particularly impressive musical tradition - the First Viennese School of composers consisted of [[Haydn]], [[Mozart]], [[Beethoven]] and [[Schubert]], whilst later the [[Waltz|waltzes]] and operettas of [[Johann Strauss]] Jr. came to epitomize the city's imperial grandeur and elegance. Johannes [[Brahms]] also made his home in Vienna, whose streets he claimed to know inside-and-out from his long walks around the city. Anton Bruckner, the composer of nine symphonies, taught harmony at the Vienna Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts; his admirer [[Gustav Mahler]] became conductor of the Vienna State Opera in 1897 and wrote his nine symphonies evoking Vienna's peculiar juxtaposition of the urban and the pastoral.
During the long reign of [[Kaiser]] Franz Joseph I, who occupied the throne from just after the revolution of 1848 to his death in 1916, Vienna enjoyed a golden age of culture. Franz Joseph was responsible, among other things, for taking down the city walls and commissioning numerous grand buildings on the "Ringstrasse," the name for the circular street which encompasses the city center. Among these numerous stunning examples of imperial architecture are the State Opera House, City Hall, the Musikverein (home of the Vienna Philhamonic), the symmetrical pair of museums known as the Museum of Historical Art and Natural History, the Parliament building, and the Votive Church (commissioned in neo-Gothic style as a thanks to God after a failed assassination attempt in 1853).
Toward the end of the Austrian empire, new currents in art centered in Vienna showed undercurrents of unease and dread. In painting, the [[Expressionist]] works of [[Egon Schiele]] and [[Gustav Klimt]] seemed to foreshadow the city's decline. In Music, the Second Viennese School comprising [[Arnold Schoenberg]], [[Alban Berg]], and [[Anton von Webern]] stretched tonal dissolution and thematic complexity all the way past its breaking point, and after the First World War tried to put it back together again under new rules, in much the same way that Vienna was searching for her relevance after the fall of the empire.
{{Clear}}
{{Clear}}
<center>
<center>
<gallery perrow="5">
Image:Vienna Schönbrunn.jpg|Schönbrunn.
Image:Vienna graben.jpg|Graben street.
Image:Vienna City Hall.JPG|City Hall.
Image:Vienna Graben.jpg|Graben street.
Image:Vienna inner Hofburg.jpg|Hofburg.
</gallery>
[[Image:Vienna Museum of historical art.jpg|500px]]
Museum of historical art.
</center>
==See Also==
*[[London]]
*[[Art cities]]
*[[Congress of Vienna]]
== External links ==
*[http://europeforvisitors.com/switzaustria/planner/blp_at_vienna_museums.htm Vienna Museums]
*[http://europeforvisitors.com/switzaustria/articles/schoenbrunn_palace.htm Schönbrunn Palace]
[[Category:Capital Cities]]
[[Category:Europe]]
<gallery perrow="5">
<gallery perrow="5">
Image:Vienna Schönbrunn.jpg|Schönbrunn.
Image:Vienna Schönbrunn.jpg|Schönbrunn.