If you look back through the centuries at some of the symbols and customs associated with Easter, curious origins emerge. In the early days of Christianity, the church incorporated many pagan rites of spring into its Easter celebrations as it struggled to gain Read More
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (21 August 1858 – 30 January 1889) was the son and heir of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria and Elisabeth of Austria. His death, apparently through suicide, along with that of his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera at his Read More
It was in 1949, four years after the end of the Second World War and seven years after the Austrian writer’s death that an English-language publication, the prestigious Times Literary Supplement announced the rediscovery of a forgotten writer. His name: Robert Musil. Musil Read More
“The vintner, if sound in mind, goes around his vines seventeen times a year.” Old farming rule of thumb, valid to this day. The word Heurigen has long been part of the vocabulary of tourism in Vienna – no sightseeing visit to the Read More
Vienna is an ideal-typical European city similar to Barcelona, London, Milan, Paris or Rome, but unlike the others it is very compact and easy to negotiate. Vienna is referred to by many as a unique onion, with each of the urban layers surrounding Read More
You enter through a simple doorway. You proceed through a hall, until – suddenly – you feel you have stepped onto a stage, or onto a broad plain after passing through a narrow gorge. You have a sense of space and depth and, Read More
As you pass through the gate of Vienna’s St. Marx Cemetery in the Third District in spring, it’s possible a peacock will greet you with a gravelly squawk from its perch on a lichen-encrusted tombstone near the entrance. The beauty of this most Read More
When Arthur Schnitzler was sixteen years old, his physician father discovered the boy had visited a house of ill repute. He did not lecture him, but required him to read through a tome about venereal diseases, filled with grisly illustrations. This lesson did Read More
A special exhibition of Vienna’s 250 year old Schoenbrunn zoo opened last spring in the Natural History Museum and will continue until the end of October. Established in 1752 by the Holy Roman Emperor Franz Stephan von Lorraine (1708-1765), husband of Habsburg Empress Read More