Modern and imperial architecture meet in Vienna, where modern museums partner with once-royal institutions.
By SUSAN LADIKA
Published July 27, 2003
[Photo: Austrian National Tourist Office]
The most noteworthy newcomer to Vienna’s cultural scene is the Leopold Museum, left, where Austrian works from the 20th century are given center stage. The baroque building at center is the Kunsthalle Wein and at right is the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation.
[Photo: Susan Ladika]
Stephansdom, or St. Stephen’s Cathedral, dominates Vienna. The church has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries. View larger photo
[Photo: Susan Ladika]
An angel adorns a column at Karlskirche, which was built nearly 300 years ago to commemorate Vienna’s survival of the plague. View larger photo
[Austrian National Tourist Office]
Schoenbrunn, the summer palace of the Habsburgs, is a subway ride from Vienna. View larger photo
[Austrian National Tourist Office]
In Viennese cafes, writers, politicians and artists still gather to meet, read a newspaper or sip coffee.
[Times art]
VIENNA - I first saw Vienna a decade ago, in the midst of tourist overload. After a week in Prague and Budapest, Vienna seemed rather ho hum, just another beautiful Central European capital decked in a melting blanket of snow.
Memories were of elegant buildings lined shoulder to shoulder and sidewalks desperately in need of a pooper-scooper law.
I next arrived two years later, enrolling in an international MBA program and intending to stay six months. Those six months stretched into six years, stitched together by the thread of day-to-day European life.
The beautiful Baroque and art nouveau architecture, in this country called Jugendstil, became as much a part of the cityscape as a light pole or a chestnut tree in my rush to work or to meet a friend at an Internet cafe.
My third time viewing Vienna with fresh eyes was this May, 11/2 years after returning stateside. This trip felt a bit like a reunion with a long-absent friend. At first glance, Vienna looked the same, yet clearly things had changed.
For a city whose growth began in earnest about a millennium ago, change comes neither quickly nor easily.
Yet change it does, as sushi bars now jostle with turn-of-the-century cafes for patrons' euros, new museums make a splash on the cultural scene and museums long closed for renovation reopen.
There aren't enough hours in a week to visit all Vienna's cultural gems, which include opulent palaces, grand churches and vibrant parks and gardens.
In a city awash with culture, the most noteworthy newcomer is the Leopold Museum, a limestone cube of a building in which Austrian works from the 20th century are given center stage.
With perhaps the exception of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, the artists are not widely recognized outside of Austria. But Dr. Rudolf Leopold's collection of more than 5,000 paintings, Jugendstil furniture and objets d'art increases the appreciation of this country's artists.
Museums and more museums
The Leopold Museum is part of the MuseumsQuartier. One of the largest cultural complexes in the world, it draws together five museums and about 20 other cultural institutions in a stunning blend of old and new.
The heart of the project is what once was the opulent 18th century riding stables of the Habsburgs, the dynasty that ruled the Austro-Hungarian empire for centuries. Plays, film festivals and other events are staged within what once was the Winter Riding School.
The Baroque buildings are surrounded by sleek 21st century structures, including the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation. This houses one of the largest European collections of modern and contemporary art. Also in the complex is the Kunsthalle Wien, which displays international contemporary art, particularly photography, video, film and installation art.
This spring was the reopening of the Albertina, with its 60,000 drawings and 1-million prints. Initially closed nearly a decade ago for a routine renovation, the dark, dusty, former palace was transformed into a bright, airy museum.
Dozens of the museum's most prized sketches, by masters such as Michelangelo, Rubens and da Vinci, are on display, some for the first time in decades.
Among the Albertina's most famous works are Albrecht Durer's Hare and Praying Hands, which will be the focal point of a fall exhibition, followed by a display next year of Rembrandt's drawings and paintings.
Palaces, churches and scandal
Beyond the additions to the museum scene are a number of traditional sights. One must is a walk around the Ringstrasse, the grand boulevard cradling downtown. The broad avenue was created in the mid 1800s when the city's medieval walls were razed.
The street is adorned with one jewel after another:
The neo-Gothic Rathaus, or Town Hall, with elegant towers jutting above the treetops; the neo-Classical Parliament, bedecked with Greek and Roman figures; and the neo-Renaissance opera house, which originally received such criticism that one of its architects committed suicide.
Such scandals aren't atypical in a city as steeped in history as Vienna. Down the street is the Hofburg, the Habsburgs' main palace. Though the earliest parts date to the 1200s, the overwhelming influence in the imperial apartments is that of Empress Elisabeth, or "Sisi," who shocked proper society in the 1800s with her aversion to court etiquette. Her former quarters at the Hofburg still contain her gymnastics equipment, including rings suspended from the gold-trimmed door frame.
A scandal of a different sort took place a few months ago, across the street:
Thieves slipped into the Kunsthistorisches Museum and escaped with a $57-million gold-plated salt cellar dating from the 1500s. Although the museum's alarm system sounded, the theft wasn't discovered for several hours, raising speculation of an inside job.
Several of the museum's exhibit halls have been closed as a result, but visitors can still see early European masters, as well as the Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection, including a number of mummies.
Outside the Ringstrasse is the most opulent church in the city, Karlskirche, built nearly 300 years ago to commemorate the city's survival of the plague. The copper dome and twin pillars of the massive white church are remarkable.
Vienna's best-known church is the Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), which dominates the city center. The roots of the church date to the 12th century, and after a fire reduced it to rubble, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style. Stephansdom was heavily damaged when the Turks besieged the city in the 1600s, then was destroyed again in World War II.
Just as impressive as the Gothic sculpture, soaring ceilings, stained glass and gilt inside Stephansdom is the massive roof, made of nearly a quarter-million glazed tiles.
Not all Vienna's history is confined within the city center. Centuries ago, the Habsburgs would pack up their imperial household, and a caravan of carriages would make the trek to Schoenbrunn, the family's summer palace. Today, the sprawling, 1,400-room palace is just a quick subway ride away.
At Schoenbrunn, the influence of Empress Maria Theresa, the empire's strongest female personality, dominates more than two centuries later. The palace drips gilt trimmings, massive chandeliers and delicate furnishings.
It also is lavish with history: Mozart, age 6, performed there for the empress. And on the palace grounds, the Schoenbrunn Tiergarten is said to be the oldest zoo in the world, created 250 years ago by the empress' husband.
If all Vienna's artwork, gilding and architecture begins to overwhelm, take a break the way Viennese have for centuries: Step into one of the city's cafes, where writers, politicians and artists still gather to meet, read a newspaper or relax while sipping coffee and tucking into a creamy confection. It's the perfect way to contemplate the richness of the city, where change mixes slowly with history.
