Vienna in a Day in Vienna

Reviewed by: Kevin Rating:

To get the distinct flavour of Vienna in a day, for sure it will be a journey back in history and requries a little planning!

You might start at the ST.STEPHEN's Cathedral with its stunning towers and a unique roof with coloured tiles.  It has a definite Romanesque past.  Then go round the church to the left and you'll be facing St. John Capistran's pulpit, where he used to preach the crusaders against the invasion of Turks in Hungaryin 1450.  There's Gothic and Baroque styles striking the eye with a dramatic contrasting decor.  Then for a break you might head down to GRABEN QUARTER, where you can do some nice shopping and...if you don't get lost... go for St. Michael's Church, opposite the HOFBURG.  Here you'll experience the many periods of Vienna all jammed in a single space!  The church retains some of its Medieval architecture, though it has been "baroquised" later.  Mozart's Requiem was first performed here! 

Opposite, the Hofburg embodies the Imperial Vienna at it's highest point!  Von Erlach was the architect who designed the district.  Then the Vienna of Mahler, Freud, Strauss and Klimt is showing at the LOOSHAUS, a severe rectilinear work of SECESSIONIST architecture.  Then a must see is the Karlskirche (Kirche is church) that has a facade that combines reminiscences of Trajan's columns, the LATERAN and ST.PETER'S Church of Rome, it kind of stands out as an assertion of Vienna as the "New Rome", that is to say a heart of a new empire!

Category: Sightseeings

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