Vienna: what a capital!

 

The Hofburg Palace is a magnificent structure from all angles. We love the architecture of Paris, and parts of London, Rome and St Petersburg, but for mass exposure to structured (dare I say Germanic) architecture, there is nothing like Vienna.

And it is so well maintained and clean at the macro and micro levels. Many Buildings had clearly been cleaned in recent years, scaffolding and cranes were up working on others. When we walked out for breakfast on the Monday morning there was a army of workers cleaning seats in squares, scrubbing fountains and generally making sure everything looked great.



So different from some many other capitals and cities.

We attended a ballet performance at the Opera House on the Saturday night. The first item was classical in nature; see bottom picture. There was then a 10 minute interval when we were able to walk out onto a balcony high above the street and I snapped the equestrian statue at close range in the fading twilight.

The second ballet item was a 'large cast' modern ballet which I though was very clever in design and excursion. Another interval and the final item was modern dance in style; I didn't really get it, apart from they were trying to blur the distinction between genders.

St. Michael's Church is one of few remaining Romanesque-buildings in Vienna and is located near St. Michael's Gate at the Hofburg Palace. St. Michael's was once the parish church of the Imperial Court.

 

This is a very old part of the city, and in the small square between St Michael's and the Gate, Roman ruins we discover in the 1990s (top left pix)! They are part of a much larger known Roman city.

The high alter piece is late Baroque in style. In the centre two angles hold a painting. The four gospel authors sit either side and two saints stand on the sides. St Sebastian (left) is spared the ignominy of having multi arrows through him. He holds a single arrow in his left hand to assist recognition.

 

 

While we were visiting on a Sunday afternoon an organist was practicing.

The top photo is part of the front facade of the Parliament House.

Below is the front of the Vienna Rathaus. As Austria was playing in Euro2016 that afternoon, a large public viewing area had been set up in front of the Rathaus; a fan arena. The architecture of sides and back of the Parliament and Rathaus are almost as impressive as the fronts.

 

As a nod to history we rode the Wien Wheel one more time.