traveldk.com

In the Hofmobiliendepot (imperial court furniture depot), which was established by Empress Maria Theresa in the late 18th century, all the Habsburgs’ furniture was stored, repaired and kept in a good state to be distributed to imperial households whenever required. Today the museum tells how imperial families used to live and has thousands of exhibits spanning more than five centuries. Among them are curiosities such as Baroque armchairs on wheels, an imperial travel throne, velvet-covered praying stools, Rococo spittoons and toilets disguised as stacks of books. There are also fully furnished rooms on display ranging from Empress Elisabeth’s rustic rooms from the Schönbrunn Meierei and a typical girl’s room as it would have looked in the Biedermeier period.

The 484-m (1,580-ft) high Kahlenberg mountain is on the fringe of the Vienna Woods and covered with trees and vineyards. The Höhenstrasse, a scenic route lined with trees that occasionally offers a glimpse of the city, winds its way up the Kahlenberg from Grinzing, and on top of the hill you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the city. During the Turkish siege of 1683, the Polish troops under King Jan III Sobieski descended from the top of this hill and defeated the Turkish army on 12 September that year. The little Baroque church on top of Kahlenberg commemorates this historic event.

The crypt beneath the Kapuzinerkirche (Capuchin church) was established by Empress Anna in 1618 and served as the Habsburgs’ burial place for more than 350 years. Among the 146 bodies resting in elaborately decorated sarcophagi or simple coffins are 12 emperors and 19 empresses. However, their hearts were buried separately in silver containers in the crypt of the Augustin church (see p63) and their intestines in copper urns in the catacombs of the Stephansdom.

This church, another Art Nouveau masterpiece by the Viennese architect Otto Wagner (see p118), was created between 1905 and 1907 as a place of worship for the patients at the Steinhof psychiatric hospital. The entire hospital complex at the edge of the Vienna Woods was designed to bring the patients closer to a healthy and natural environment and to help ensure their recovery. The square church, flanked by two bell towers, was also intended to bring aesthetic pleasure to the sick with its colourful windows and mosaics. Its glistening golden dome can be spotted from the Gloriette building in Schönbrunn Park (see p49).

Just next to Kahlenberg is its twin mountain, the Leopoldsberg, that dominates the Danube valley. From the top of the 425-m (1,400-ft) high mountain you get an excellent view of the entire region around Vienna. Leopoldsberg is named after the Babenberg ruler Leopold III (1073–1136) and the ruins of the 13th-century Babenberg castle destroyed by the Turkish troops in 1529 are still visible. An older church on top of the mountain was also destroyed by the Turks and was replaced by a Baroque church in the 18th century.

One of the finest examples of an Art Nouveau-style house was designed by the celebrated architect Otto Wagner in 1898. The house is decorated with colourful floral patterns on glazed tiles – pink roses, green leaves and blue blossoms spread across the building’s weather-resistant surface. The window sills bear matching floral patterns. The house is now divided into apartments with shops on the ground floor.

After Kärtner Strasse and the Graben, this street is the city’s trendiest and most frequented shopping mile. Hundreds of shops and a few department stores offer fashion, books, music and electronic goods, while cafés, restaurants, ice cream parlours and cinemas abound. The shops are interspersed with two churches, Stiftskirche at the lower end and Mariahilf in the middle.

The puppet theatre in the little court theatre at Schönbrunn stages wonderful shows that are as much a delight for adults as for children. A version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute is the undisputed highlight of the programme, with a feather-clad Tamino and a spectacularly vicious snake.

This crypt contains well-preserved mummies, some of them still wearing Baroque frocks and wigs. From 1631 to 1784 some 4,000 bodies were buried here, including nobles who wanted to rest close to the emperor at his Hofburg residence opposite (see p48).