Vienna : The Gates of Europe

The Great Austrian city of Vienna sits at the edge of the Western world and guards its gates like a sentinel. It defended Europe against the aggressive forces from the east and protected the great values and ethics of the Western world. First the Mongols and then the Turks knocked the 'Gates of Vienna', however the city stood firm and repelled them. It is to this great city that i travel to on my sojourn through Europe.

June 5, 2011, Sunday

Europe for centuries has been eyed by the marauding forces from the middle east particularly who were zestful for the spread of their religion. At first the great gateway to Europe opened through the strait of Gibraltar from where the Arabs entered Spain and even as their pan-European conquest failed they did rule Spain for almost 700 years. The next great conquest came during the 16th Century and this time the attack came from the Ottoman Turks who unlike the Arabs took the back door route to Europe and attacked through Eastern Europe which they controlled by then.

It was the summer of 1683 and the Great cathedral of St.Stephan's in the middle of the city resounded with bells asking the Christian world to defend itself against the Muslim invaders. As battle resumed the gates of Vienna held strong and in what turned out to be a turning point in history the Turks were defeated and the West was saved. Even after more than three centuries after this siege the historic value of that victory has not dimmed. Just imagine a counter-factual, what if the Turks had won. There would be Islamic rule over most of Europe, no enlightenment of western values, no rise of science, post-renaissance art would have been severely hit owing to strict Islamic scriptures, no democracy as we know it today and Europe surely would have been plunged into the morass that the middle east has now come to become. Its almost mind numbing to think of even one of these possibilities. If ever there was a battle for the future of humanity, this was it, and thankfully for the world the West won!

As i was going through the above train of thoughts the bus finally arrived in Vienna. I had not had even a wink of sleep and was pretty tired and the body almost refused to collaborate. However the sight of the city had the desired effect as i was now driven by the adrenalin rush and now i knew i would not feel even an ounce of tiredness, the mind had taken over the body!

Vienna has a pretty compact city center , called the Inner Stadt. At once i made my way to the center of the city and to St.Stephan's Cathedral. Its the tallest building in the city and its spire can be seen from almost any part of the city. Dedicated to St.Stephan its one of the great churches of Europe dating back to the 12th century and built in a Romanesque and Gothic fashion. What gives it a distinct appearance though is the row of colorful ceramic tiles that adorn its roof. The tiles shined in the bright sunshine and were a picture to remember. The insides too were magnificent and as it was a Sunday the mass was underway. I was curious though to see a chapel dedicated to the late pope Jone Paul II and i came to know that he actually served as the Arch bishop of Vienna before he became the pope.

The church sits in the middle an eponymous square called Stephansplatz and numerous streets radiate from it into the rest of the Inner city. But i was personally interested in one particular street called the Domgasse - literally the 'Church street'. The reason was that this was where the greatest musician of the Western world stayed! Yes, Mozart stayed in one of the houses in this street for a period of four years. The house has since been converted into a museum and is a must visit for any lover of Western classical music. As i approached the Mozarthaus i was gripped with the memory of the great artist and felt as though i was on haloed turf. This was the place i thought where the genius would have composed some of his great operas and compositions. Just to walk on the same street and breathing the same air as the great man was an exhilarating experience for a mere mortal like me. I was one lucky guy i complemented myself!

Then i wondered through some of the other streets of the inner stadt which looked like a bigger replica of Prague old town actually. The streets in the inner stadt and their houses are still the same as they were centuries ago and walking through them was a great joy. Then i came to one of the oldest squares in Vienna - the Graban. Its a square lined with various famous fashion boutiques and at its center it has the plague column. It was a remarkable baroque column with various saints and angels and the holy ghost standing on top. Looking at that one could sense how much of an impact the plague had not just in Vienna but around Europe. Millions of people perished in a short time and i am sure its end must have brought great joy to the Viennese who built this magnificent column.

A short distance from the Graban is the Hofburg Palace, the official residence of the Hapsburgs who had quite a few palaces here but the Hofburg was their central base. The Hapsburg palaces in Budapest and Prague were just an appetizer i thought to myself as this was the real deal! Vienna was of course not just the Capital of the Hapsburg's Austro-Hungarian Empire but also of the Holy Roman Empire which the Hapsburgs came to rule as well. The Holy Roman Empire was sort of a phantom empire that hovered over Europe right from the fall of Rome till about early 19th century when at last Napoleon laid it to rest for good. It was ruled at various times by various empires of Europe usually by the one who was the most powerful and subsequently the Hapsburgs inherited it as well and became the Holy Roman Emperors and Vienna its capital. I think it was Voltaire who once famously said about the Holy Roman empire that it was neither holy,nor roman , nor an Empire. He was right as always!

My Walk ended at the great entrance of the Hofburg palace which was in pristine white color. Colossal statues of sinewy giants hammering mortals adorned the entrance way. The entrance was also winged by two magnificent fountains containing statues from mythology. There was also a church opposite to the entrance way. What an entrance i gasped. As i stepped inside the Palace i was transported back to the age of the great empire. Statues of myths in pure white marble flanked me as i saw horse carriages galloping with bewildered tourists on board even as men dressed in royal robes welcomed the visitors. Soon i am at the Josefsplatz named after the great king Franz Josef. It had the statue of the equestrian king in the middle surrounded by various other buildings of the palace. From here there was the entrance to the famous Swizz court which had a magnificent red and black Swiss gate that led me into the Schatzkammer or the Imperial treasury. Why was it called 'Swizz' court i wondered, maybe it could be because the Hapsburgs originally were from a small village in Switzerland so maybe it was in memory of that.

I had heard a lot about the Hofburg treasury and how it rivaled and in fact bettered the British treasury and i was looking forward to seeing it. And i was not disappointed as it was simply magnificent. Rooms upon rooms were filled with the Hapsburg riches. The most famous of them all was the Hapsburg crown jewels which was a real eyeful with its crown of gold and embedded precious gems along with the orb and scepter all in gold of course. A painting beside it of the king wearing them from the 19the century just showed how old it was. Also present was the royal gown which was red in color and looked very royal. In another room a cradle was present which i got to know was the cradle of Napoleon's son, this was here as Napoleon married a Hapsburg princess as part of a political deal and their son would have nothing short of a royal cradle. There was even a crown going back to the time of Charlemagne which is like a thousand years ago. The treasury was putting out a real show i thought to myself. There were several rooms that housed the treasures the Hapsburgs collected from around the world including clocks, lamps, table pieces etc. One item though caught my attention, there was a mantle piece that contained apparently one of the nails used to crucify Christ, that was truly amazing! As i exited the treasury i was in a daze and wondered if any other treasury in the world could compete with this level of richness!

Still dizzy from the royal treasury i moved to the historic Heldenplatz or the Hero's square, the most famous square of the Hofburg palace. At one end is the magnificent Neueberg palace and at the other end is the Volksgarten or the People's park. It was at this very place on top of the Neueberg that a jubilant Hitler amidst a roaring crowd below on the square announced the beginning of his 1000-year lasting third Reich. The Neueberg which means the 'New building' itself is a piece of supreme art. Its a magnificent neo-classical building with a curved arcade of pillars and arches. The whole concavity of the building is a sight to behold. It has an equestrian statue of Prince Eugene who stopped the Turks. Inside the Neueberg there was a wonderful exhibition about the Greek city of Ephesus, however more wonderful than that was the interior architecture of the building which was a sheer joy to behold. To just imagine that Hitler was inside this building and walking the stairs that i was during the heady days of the war gave goosebumps to me. Finally after what seemed like eternity i was out of Heldenplatz and the Hofburg palace. It was a heady experience and the sheer richness combined with the history of the place was overwhelming. No wonder they called Vienna a royal city!

The Hofburg palace exits into the famed Ringstrasse or the ring road that runs around the city. Right across the ringstrasse are two magnificent , large identical buildings on either side with the statue of the queen Maria Theresa in the middle. This is the Maria-Theresien-platz and the buildings on either side are the Kunsthistorisches museum and the Natural history museum and i headed straight to the former. The Kunsthistorisches museum or the art history museum is one of the great museums of the world. The entire collection here is compiled by the Hapsburgs so you could say that it was their personal art gallery and considering that they ruled a vast empire for a long period of time it is one very rich collection. The building itself is magnificent and it has some great works of art from around the world with the Italian collection being particularly strong.

As i entered the Kunsthistorisches museum the first thing i noticed was the grand entrance. It consisted of a staircase with a magnificent statue of Cannova at the head of it. Cannova was a great Italian sculptor of the baroque era and he sculpted this piece which had the great Greek hero Theseus slaying a centaur. It was one of the best statues i had ever seen and it was very detailed in its portrayal of the moment, so much so that one could almost feel that the figures were in flesh and not in stone. It was apparently commissioned by Napoleon to go at a square in Milan but with Napoleon's defeat it never went there and instead the Hapsburgs purchased it and had it at their museum. Apart from the statue at the head of the staircase what caught your attention was the ceiling. The ceiling was painted with various figures of renaissance art including Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci who were immersed in a discussion. The painting looked almost three dimensional as i could feel their presence. It was a great entrance to the museum and the best museum entrance in the world perhaps after the Louvre entrance which in fact it reminded me of very much.

Once inside i was really impressed by the collections. Although not as extensive as some of the other museums i have visited it was high on quality. The Egyptian section is particularly good and once inside the Egyptian rooms you almost felt you are inside Egypt. However the real highlight of the museum was the Italian section. The section is organized by painters and each room leaves you mesmerized. It amazes me as to what made the Italians so artistic, every museum you go around the world it invariably has a great Italian collection for sure. Here too various Italian artists like Titian, Caravaggio, Leonardo,Raphael and others adorned the walls. I liked the paintings where these masters combined Christian figures with figures from Greek mythology and it was fascinating to see the interaction of these two great periods on canvas. Also amazing was the Dutch painting section especially that of the dutch master Breugel which was different than the Italian in that it was less religious and more secular, hence it had beautiful landscapes and paintings of common folk at work. Apart from these there was a great Greek collection which was impressive too. The interior of the museum too was a work of art with amazing richness and color and beauty. All in all it was a great museum experience and i would have stayed there for longer but was forced to leave as it was closing time!

A short walk from the museum brought me to the Burggarten which is one of the bests parks in Vienna and most importantly has the Mozart memorial. Mozart was born in Salzburg and emerged as a child prodigy with an amazing talent for classical music. However Salzburg was too small for his talent and he had to move to Vienna where he impressed the then queen Maria Theresa so much that he became a court regular. He spent much of his life in Vienna and composed some of the great classical pieces of all time before he died an untimely death at the age of 35. The Viennese had taken him to their hearts and even as his operas resonated throughout the city decided to build a memorial for him in this park.

The memorial was truly spectacular. It showed Mozart in the middle of his moment, with one arm reluctantly placed on his music notes while the other swirls in the air , his head slightly tilted upwards as if he has just thought of a tune. Truly amazing spectacle. As i gazed at the man i can almost hear his tune in my ears which seem to drown the cacophony of the outside world. Only his tune seems to be entering my mind at that moment and i am transported back to the royal courts as Mozart is delivering his masterpieces to the awestruck audiences. What a moment!

Even as Mozart lingers in my ears i exit and make my way along the Ringstrasse. First came the Staatsoper or the State Opera and with Vienna being the center of western classical music it seemed befitting the great city. A short metro ride from the opera brought me to the magnificent Charles' Church , a great baroque church built on the lines of Borromini's St.Agnes in Agony church at Piazza Navona in Rome. I had seen the original when i had been to Rome and this one almost matched up to it. It also departed from the original by having Romanesque columns on either sides which was a nice touch i thought.

I was back on the Ringstrasse again and the great road took me to the Vienna Rathaus or Town hall. It was a colossal building but it was surpassed by the graceful Vienna Burgtheatre across it. The Burgthreatre is another tribute to Vienna's great love affair with the arts. Public places like this and the opera and town hall show that the Hapsburgs did indeed do something for the people other than indulging themselves with pleasure. Even though royalty is an abhorrence one has to give it to them when one sees such public buildings and support of the arts.

Right next to the Rathaus is the Austrian parliament. This was the final attraction of the day and what a finale it was. I have seen a lot of parliament buildings right from the Reichstag in Berlin to the French parliament in Paris but this topped them all. It was built like classical Greek temple with a magnificent fountain of Athena in the front. It was a heartfelt tribute by the Austrian people to the 'Cradle of Democracy' Greece. In fact for a moment i thought i was back in ancient Greece , it was so convincing. The magnificent building stood majestically and was flanked on the sides by bronze statues of taming horseman. The Pièce de résistance was surely the fountain of Athena. Athena the Goddess of wisdom stood on a pillar in full armor with a gilded helmet with a spear in the left hand and carrying Nike, the goddess of victory in the right hand. A subtle allegory that wisdom carries victory! Athena was flanked by four allegorical figures, two in front and two at the back representing the four great rivers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Little cupids riding dolphins completed the awesome setting. The ramp way to the main building were filled with statues of great Austrians. The ramp leads to the main building which is filled with paintings and statues from the Greek myths expounding civic virtues and patriotism. I wondered what more treasures could be hidden within its walls and felt jealous of the Austrian parliamentarians who went to work in such a beautiful building. If only my office could have been half as grand as this i muttered to myself!

The whole day had been one dream after another and i was overwhelmed by Vienna. One more day remained in this great city and i was already looking forward to it!

June 6, 2011, Monday

It was a new day and the sun shone brightly on the great city. Vienna is famous for bakeries and bread in general and while having breakfast that morning i happened to look at a croissant in one of the many bakeries. The croissant again took me back to the siege of Vienna. Legend goes that as the Turks laid siege to Vienna they decided to attack in the early hours of the morning hoping to catch the Viennese off guard. However their plan was thwarted when the bakers of the city who were up early that morning found the Turks creeping under the city and informed the Viennese army who spoiled the Turkish attack and saved the city. In celebration of this event the bakers prepared a sweet bread in the shape of the Crescent they saw on Turkish flags and this sweet bread became popular over time and reached France and became known world-wide as the Croissant, which was French for crescent. History truly is fascinating!

Vienna as the world knows is a royal city and based on yesterday's evidence was a pretty serious royal city. The legacy that the Hapsburgs have left behind is pretty amazing with all their palaces. Hofburg was not the only palace they had in Vienna, in fact it was only their winter residence. They actually 'summered' in a grand palace outside the city called the Schönbrunn palace.

The Schönnbrunn (meaning 'beautiful spring') palace is one of Europe's most grandiose palaces and among palaces only Schönbrunn rivals Versailles. As one approaches the palace the first noticeable thing is the unique color. In the beginning the palace had a strictly grey exterior however with the coming of the baroque age the color was changed to a shade of yellow. It wasn't quite yellow nor was it orange it was a shade in between and from that day onwards it was and still called 'Schönbrunn yellow'! The weather too was perfect and the palace shone in the morning sun shine.

While much of the exterior is in Baroque the preferred style of the divine monarchs of the 17th century the interior is in Rococo - the more 'frillier' let-them-eat-cake style that followed. The interiors were done during the time of the Empress Maria Theresa who was the only woman monarch of the Hapsburgs. She seemed to believe in the 'make love not war' mantra as she married most of her 16 children to kings from warring kingdoms and thereby buying peace. One of whom was Marie Antoinette who was married into the French monarchy and we know the troubles she got into later with the French revolution. When i had been to Paris i had seen the history there with Marie Antoinette at its center and now when i come here to Vienna she somehow makes an appearance here as well. Its a small world indeed!

Once inside the palace, room after luxurious room tell the tale of this powerful monarchy which ruled over a vast number of multi-ethnic people. You cannot miss the elaborate Rococo style of the interiors. Building on the more sober baroque the Rococo style is marked with elaborate designs, be it wall paintings or furniture or chandeliers everything seems so elaborate and almost over the top. The ceiling frescoes seem particularly interesting as they look almost like propaganda. The divine queen is shown sitting on her thrown and the ever grateful people of her empire bow before her with gifts even as soldiers march into battle. I am not sure if this was reality for within a few years there would be a revolution in neighboring France which would envelope the entire continent. Anyway whatever be the politics of it all the interior is a gem and its grandness will always remain in my mind. One room though was of particular interest to me, it was a room where the five-year old Mozart performed for the first time in front of the queen and legend has it that Mozart after finishing with the piano leapt onto the queens lap and planted a kiss on her cheek. Being in the same room was simply surreal!

The Palace opens onto the Imperial gardens which are modeled on the ones in Versailles. The garden was pretty huge and it had a carpet of green grass laid over it with beautiful flowers of various color and variety glistening in the summer sun. At the end of the garden was the famous fountain of Neptune with water gushing through with enormous sound and fury. Beyond the fountain though is a natural hill capped by the Gloriette, a triumphal baroque arch ensemble providing a crowning touch to the palace complex. Its good to see such Imperial palaces and gardens open to the public for they are the rightful owners and it shows the evolution of our society from autocracy to democracy. Its been a century since the last King checked out from the palace and its now been overrun by commoners and they seem to be doing quite well without the King!

The last stop on the trip was to another palace - the Belvedere palace. Belvedere means 'Fair weather' and the weather was very fair, in fact it was a touch hot if anything. The palace is again on the outer part of the city and was built as a personal home of Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Turkish defeating fame. Although not as huge as the Schönbrunn it has an exquisite exterior. The white exterior of the palace is capped by a green roof carrying various detailed statuettes. The palace also had a beautiful garden with a small pond in the middle. Interestingly Prince Eugene was from France and apparently the French king did not employ him as he was not sufficiently handsome enough. But the France's loss was Austria's gain and he came over into Austria and helped defeat the Turks. His victory over the Turks is commemorated in the palace architecture too. Either side of the palace there are domes which were constructed to symbolize the domes of the Turks, his way of mocking them perhaps. After exiting the Belvedere palace i had lunch at a nearby restaurant and had the famous Wiener Schnitzel. A perfect end to the day.

Thus the visit to Vienna came to an end. It was an overwhelming experience to visit this great royal city and experience its fascinating history and its a memory i would cherish for the rest of my life!