Vienna's Imperial Grandeur: A Weekend in the Habsburg Capital

Vienna was the capital of the Habsburg Empire from 1440 to 1918 and the centre of European culture for much of that period — the city where Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Mahler all lived and worked, where Freud developed psychoanalysis, where Klimt and Schiele reinvented painting, and where the Ringstrasse — the grand boulevard built by Emperor Franz Joseph in the 1860s — set the template for the monumental urban planning of the 19th century.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum, built to house the Habsburg art collection, is one of the finest art museums in the world — a collection of Bruegel, Vermeer, Raphael, Titian, and Velázquez assembled over centuries by the most powerful dynasty in Europe. The building itself, designed by Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer, is as impressive as the collection — a palace of marble, gold, and painted ceilings that makes the act of looking at art feel appropriately ceremonial.

The Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsburg emperors, is the finest baroque palace in Central Europe — a complex of 1,441 rooms, formal gardens, and the Gloriette (a neoclassical colonnade on the hill above the palace that offers the finest view of Vienna). The palace is best visited on a weekday morning, when the tour groups are thinner and the state rooms — the Hall of Mirrors, the Great Gallery, the Millions Room — can be appreciated at leisure.

The Vienna coffee house is one of the great institutions of European urban life — a place to sit for hours with a single Melange (coffee with steamed milk), a glass of water, and a newspaper, without being hurried. The Café Central, the Café Landtmann, and the Café Hawelka are the most famous, but the neighbourhood coffee houses — the Café Ritter in Mariahilf, the Café Schwarzenberg on the Ringstrasse — are equally good and considerably less crowded.

The Vienna State Opera is one of Europe’s best-known opera houses and one of the most democratic — standing room tickets for the best productions cost €4, and the standing room regulars (who mark their spots with scarves tied to the rail) are among the most knowledgeable opera audiences in Europe. The guided tours of the building, which include the stage, the rehearsal rooms, and the imperial box, are a useful way to see behind the scenes of the building.

The Naschmarkt, Vienna's main outdoor market, stretches for 1.5 kilometres along the Wienzeile and contains more than 100 stalls selling fresh produce, cheese, meat, fish, and the specialities of every country in the former Habsburg Empire — Turkish spices, Balkan grilled meats, Austrian cheeses, and the Viennese pastries that are among the finest in the world. The Saturday flea market at the southern end of the Naschmarkt is one of the best in Europe.

The best time to visit Vienna is in spring (April to June) or autumn (September to October), when the weather is mild and the cultural calendar is at its fullest. The Christmas markets (late November to December) are among the finest in Europe — the market in front of the Rathaus is the largest, but the smaller markets at the Schönbrunn Palace and the Spittelberg neighbourhood are more atmospheric. The summer months are warm and busy, with outdoor concerts in the Stadtpark and the Prater.

The Belvedere Palace, built for Prince Eugene of Savoy in the early 18th century, contains the finest collection of Austrian art in the world — including Klimt's The Kiss, which is the most reproduced painting in Austria and one of the most famous in the world. The Upper Belvedere's collection of Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoschka is the finest in existence, and the formal gardens between the Upper and Lower Belvedere, with their fountains, sculptures, and views over the city, are among the finest baroque gardens in Europe.

The Vienna Woods (Wienerwald), the forested hills that surround the city to the west and south, are one of Vienna's greatest assets — a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of beech and oak forest that is accessible by public transport and offers hiking, cycling, and wine tasting in the Heuriger (wine taverns) of the Grinzing and Gumpoldskirchen villages. The Heuriger tradition — sitting in a garden drinking the new wine with cold meats and bread — is one of the most pleasant ways to spend an afternoon in Vienna.

Practical tips for Vienna: the Vienna City Card covers unlimited public transport and discounts at museums and attractions, and is good value for a two or three-day visit. The U-Bahn (metro) is clean, frequent, and covers all the major sights. The museums of the Museumsquartier — the Kunsthistorisches, the Naturhistorisches, the Leopold Museum, and the MUMOK — are best visited on a Thursday evening, when several are open until 9pm and the crowds are thinner. The Prater amusement park, with its 1897 Riesenrad (giant Ferris wheel), is free to enter and the Ferris wheel ride costs about €10.

The day trip to Hallstatt, a village on the shore of the Hallstätter See in the Salzkammergut lake district (three hours from Vienna by train), is one of the finest in Austria — a UNESCO World Heritage Site of pastel-coloured houses reflected in the lake, with the Dachstein glacier rising above it. The salt mine above the village, which has been worked since the Bronze Age and is the oldest in the world, offers tours that descend into the mountain on wooden slides and explain 7,000 years of salt mining history. Hallstatt is best visited on a weekday to avoid the weekend crowds.