In the 1st century AD the Romans built a military camp (castrum) on the site of today's Vienna city center near the Danube and the connected civil city Vindobona (today 3rd district) as border security of the province of Pannonia. Still today you can see from the streets of the 1st district (Inner City), the course of the wall and the streets of the camp. The Romans remained until the 5th century. The Roman legionary camp lay far to the east of the Western Roman Empire and therefore rapidly was victim the turmoil of the Germanic barbarian invasions.
Architecturally, Vienna is still characterized primarily by the buildings around the Vienna Ringstrasse from the Wilhelminian era, but also by Baroque and Art Nouveau. Through its role as the imperial capital and residential city of the Austrian Empire from 1804 onwards, Vienna became a cultural and political centre of Europe.
Around 1910, when Vienna was still the capital of the Habsburg Monarchy, the city had over two million inhabitants. The historic centre of Vienna and Schönbrunn Palace are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites. With around 7.5 million tourists and around 16.5 million overnight stays every year, Vienna is one of the most visited cities in Europe.
Central Cemetery - Every city, like every country, has its own bizarre peculiarities, so we were more than surprised about the central cemetery in Vienna during a conversation when we found out that the cemetery is also used as a park and green area by the Viennese.
Vienna - With its 6.3 kilometres, Halterbach is the 2nd longest stream in Vienna, which flows through the suburb of Hütteldorf in which the Camping Wien West is located, too.
Schönbrunn - Those who drive through the city center of Vienna during Advent will encounter astonishing lines of visitors in the early morning already, which despite cold and light snow fall hike towards Schönbrunn Palace.
Hofburg - Once again we took the tram into the city center of Vienna, leaving the tram at Vienna State Opera. This time, our exploration tour was to include the Vienna Hofburg and the museums housed in it, where our special interest was directed to the Ephesus Museum.
Precious Metal - In our first blog reports we had already written about the coin findings from the Roman period in Brunn am Gebirge, which are today located in the exhibition at the Heritage House.
Vienna Woods - In his work, created around the middle of the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy calls the mountains between Pannonia and Norikum "Ketion oros".
Scheiblingstein - The Wienerwald has also been populated by people since time immemorial. Neolithic residential pits, which were discovered in 1914 when trenches were dug, were found on the Simonsberg in the Weidlingbach municipality as early from the Neo-Gothic era (2200-1800 BC).
Ottakring - If you want to enjoy the ultimate, almost oriental market experience in Vienna, you should visit the Brunnenmarkt in Ottakring, which we were able to do thanks to our city guide Gernot.
Freemasonry - The visit to the Central Cemetery in Vienna, which was quite wet and cold but extremely interesting, had not just led us to the grave and memorial of the artist Falco, which had established itself a real visitor magnet over the years, the visit once again showed a different way of dealing with Death here in Vienna or at least here at the central cemetery.
Danube Island - Within continuing of our project work on the development of camping tourism on the Balkans as well as the creation of intermediate stations on the way to the south, our tour planning first integrated the locations of Vienna and Budapest before moving on to Belgrade.
Mödling - At the end of our tour through Mödling, Robert introduced us to the local museum, which gives an insight view into the history of the town as well as into the surroundings places and into the past too, when the area was connected to an ocean.
Mödling - Robert's name has long been a synonym for our readers, often we have reported on his activities in Vienna and its surroundings, be it his Roman festival with the legendary Egyptian blue or his salt crystal model, which is now part of a UNESCO exhibition and within this will travel to India.
Vienna - The palace and its park form an inseparable ensemble. The center of the park is the Great Parterre, which stretches on the main axis to the Gloriette Hill since about 1780.
Schönbrunn - Once again, we were meeting to discuss the setting up of a camper stop and its advantages with regard to the further development of local culture and travel tourism to Brunn am Gebirge, which we could later use to visit the Palace of Schönbrunn and the city of Vienna.
Karlsplatz - And we continued with regard to the visit of various Christmas markets in Vienna, this time we went to the Christmas market "Art Advent" at Karlsplatz.
Karlsplatz - The Viennese Karls Church, a Roman Catholic church in the 4th district of Vienna, was built in the first half of the 18th century. Today, the church is a protected monument.
Salt – With this quote from the late Roman statesman, scholar, and writer Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus begins an email we just received from our friend Dr. Robert Krickl in Vienna.
Vienna - We had already mentioned that we wanted to use our stay during the local Roman days in Brunn am Gebirge to make some explorations through Vienna to explore the cultural and historical evolution of the provincial capital of Austria.
Friedensreich Hundertwasser - Of course, we took the advantage to pass some city areas in Vienna within our presence in Brunn am Gebirge, this time our interest was mostly directed to one of the buildings of the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, which were planned and implemented together with his architect friend Josef Krawina.
Prater - Anyone who has ever visited the capital of Austria, Vienna, will certainly have a very extensive art and culture program ahead of them and must definitely focus, especially when time is limited.