The Urban Landscape of Vienna

The heart of Vienna, the Innere Stadt (Inner City), was once surrounded by protective walls.

The walls were razed in 1857, and in their place a broad boulevard, the Ringstrasse, was built and subsequently lined with imposing buildings, monuments, and parks.

Among the more important structures here are the town hall (Rathaus, 1872-1883), the Burgtheater (1874-1888), the University (1873-1883), the Parliament (1883), and the State Opera (1861-1869), which was burned in 1945 and rebuilt in 1955.

Also here is the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, the oldest part of which was built during the 13th century.

The Gothic Saint Stephen’s Cathedral (rebuilt 13th-15th century) in the center of the Inner City has a 113-m (370-ft) steeple that can be seen from all parts of Vienna.

Beyond the Ringstrasse was a secondary fortified wall, the Gürtel, which also was torn down to make space for the expanding suburbs during the second half of the 19th century.

These suburban settlements were eventually incorporated into the city, and a pattern of radiating roads connects them with the Innere Stadt.

The names of these districts are a reminder of the former autonomous suburban settlements.

Industries are today located mostly in the southern and eastern districts.

The Danube Canal, which branches south of the Danube River, was completed in the 1880s.

The Innere Stadt borders the canal to the south, and Vienna’s second most important district is located between the canal and the Danube.

Across the Danube are newer districts; it is here that the new international center has been built.

The greatest period of building in the city was between 1870 and 1890, which was also the period of the most rapid population growth.

Vienna’s population was approximately 2.4 million in 1918.

Much of the large foreign population migrated after World War I to the various successor states of the monarchy.

Vienna’s many monumental buildings reflect the city’s cultural importance, and although the city exhibits a certain harmonious aspect, its buildings are of many different architectural styles.

Gothic, Renaissance, baroque, and typical Austrian Biedermeier structures are found together with early 20th-century barracklike apartment buildings and modern apartment buildings of the post-World War II period.

Vienna is famous for its numerous parks, many with monuments, such as the Stadtpark and Belvedere Park, with its baroque-style castle, where the State Treaty was signed.

The principal public park in Vienna, the Prater, is situated on an island formed by the Danube River and the canal.

Schönbrunn, the beautiful rococo Imperial Summer Palace, has an 18th-century park and the world’s oldest existing zoo (1752).

To the west of the city lies the Vienna Woods (Wienerwald), rising on foothills of the Alps.

Economy of Vienna

Vienna is an important port on the Danube.

Because of its strategic location on Europe’s major river, at the lowland passage between the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains, Vienna has been an important communications hub since the first Celtic settlement was established on the site.

Today, railroad lines link Vienna with nearly all the important cities of Europe.

A modern limited-access highway extends north from Vienna to Germany, and in the 1980s a highway was constructed to the south.

Vienna’s international airport is located at Schwechat to the southeast.

Vienna is by far Austria’s most important manufacturing, banking, and insurance center.

The city contributes roughly one-fifth of Austria’s total industrial plant.

Principal manufactures are food products, electrical equipment, chemicals, machinery, metal products, textiles, clothing, printed materials, and paper.

Also important are handicraft industries, producing such goods as porcelain, jewelry, glass items, leather goods, and musical instruments.

Since the mid-1950s the city has been the site of many international political and economic meetings and conferences.

The United Nations City, a complex completed on the left bank of the Danube in 1979, is the seat of several international organizations, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also has its headquarters in the city.

The biennial Vienna Fair (founded in 1921) continues to play an important role in the economic life of central Europe.

Of special importance to Vienna’s economic well-being in the post-World War II period is the large number of foreign visitors attracted to the city.