Vienna

Vienna

 August 8, 2016enjoying-sachertorte

 What can I say, Vienna, one of the most beautiful cities one can visit? Even though it suffered during WWII the architecture and that that was rebuilt was done brilliantly. It is of course two cities, one being the city of the Hapsburgs with 18th century buildings and the new Vienna, modern sky scrapers circling the city. A city with parks in the center of town having statues of Strauss and Mozart, wonderful museums and a huge Ferris Wheel that was constructed in 1897 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef 1’s ascension to the throne. I know some of you were at “Movie Night” when we presented “The Third Man” with Joseph Cotton and Orson Wells which featured a scene of them meeting in one of the gondolas. It was also in other movies as well including a Bond film with Timothy Dalton.bob-on-bridgwe

Vienna fostered careers of many composers of the 18th and 19th century and was also home to many famous names of the past. Amongst the musicians and composers you have: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss. Later in the 19th century you had Schoenberg.schonbrunn-1

The most famous artist from Vienna was Gustav Klimt. That name is probably familiar to many of you if you saw the movie, “Woman In Gold”. It was a painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, a wealthy patron of the Arts and of Gustav Klimt. It was originally called “Adele Bloch-Bauer”, but the Nazis took it in the early 1940’s and renamed it “Woman in Gold” so as not to refer to a prominent Jewish family.library

When mentioning actors and directors, you have Hedy Lamarr, Otto Preminger and Fritz Lang who were born here.

I’m going to throw a lot of photos at you as Vienna is feast for a photographer. The buildings range from Baroque, Neo-Renaissance or Gothic Romanesque and what is most interesting is that these buildings were private homes of wealthy Viennese citizens.fine-arts-museum

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get photos of some of the famous buildings as we spent the first hour circling the city in our bus. It was only after we started our walking tour that I was able to get some photos. Thus, the photos may not make much sense, but enjoy the architecture and beautiful buildings of the old city.