Page 8 of 12
Vienna, Austria
It's a nice way to die, she's so easy on the eyes
For centuries Vienna was a terribly important place- the seat of the Holy Roman and later Austrian Empires, the home of the Hapsburgs, the place where taxes from places as far away as Prague, Budapest, Sarajevo and Trieste ended up as recently as the end of the first World War. All those taxes for all those years went to good use, Vienna still feels like the imperial city it always wanted to be- gracious boulevards, parks, fountains and public buildings march around the city along the site of the now demolished protective wall. Clockwise or counterclockwise it doesn't matter, surely there's another landmark building or palace or opera house just around the next bend.
If you can picture a giant wheel with spokes then you should have few conceptual issues with understanding how Vienna works, at least in plan. At its center (as expected) is the city's cathedral, while on its outside is the Ringstrasse- a great tree and trolley lined boulevard containing most of the buildings you came this far to see. Between the Ringstrasse and the cathedral, a series of streets work their way in, with most of them (like the Kartnerstrasse, partially pictured below) becoming increasingly pedestrian friendly as you move past all those statues, fountains and expected international retailers and into its all pedestrian core.
When the Hapsburgs were in town (most winters if you don't count those times they were hiding in Prague- see tomorrow's slides for more on that), they had a reasonable palace (for the time) right on the Ringstrasse. Today it contains a few tourist friendly attractions, most notably a tourable treasury that includes a fair amount of relics from the Holy Roman Empire, including crowns and scepters and a cross complete with a chunk of old wood that claims to be a piece of the true cross. I guess if anyone had it they would- they were the Holy Roman Empire after all.
As the second part of a three part sub-series of Coop Himmelblau buildings (see Page 10 for its dramatic conclusion), this is Gasometer B, the coolest of the gasometers and way cooler than Jean Nouvel's uninspired Gasometer A, at least if you ask me. Originally the buildings held giant gas tanks, now they hold a continuous shopping mall with apartments above.
We’ll end out time in the imperial city with not one or two or even three, but instead eight bonus pictures in and about Vienna. Enjoy.
