This month's World Heritage Site

The Historic Center of Vienna
Preserving Centuries of Austrian Architecture

by Toni Dabbs

As the world celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 2006, attention is focused not only on the composer’s music but also on the city where he wrote some of his greatest masterpieces, Vienna, Austria.

Mozart spent the last 10 years of his life residing and working in what has become known as the Historic Center of Vienna, an area of urban architecture that sprouted in the Middle Ages and blossomed during the Baroque Period. Many of the structures standing today played parts in the composer’s daily life.

In 1781, the 25-year-old Mozart went to Vienna with his employer, Prince-Archbishop Count Colloredo of Salzburg. While staying at the House of the Teutonic Order (Deutschordenshaus, Singerstrasse 7), differences between Mozart and Colloredo came to a head. Mozart resigned, and Colloredo had him literally kicked out. That kick launched Mozart on his successful freelance career.

During his early years in Vienna, Mozart established his reputation by composing music and by performing on piano. He mainly wrote piano concertos, so that he could appear as soloist. But he also wrote six string quartets, which he dedicated to the master of the form and fellow Vienna resident, Joseph Haydn.

With success came love, and in 1782, Mozart married Constanze Weber, cousin of composer Carl Maria von Weber, in a modest ceremony at one of Vienna’s most prominent landmarks, St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Domkirche St. Stephan, Stephansplatz 1). St. Stephen’s has parts dating back to the 13th century, but it is essentially a Gothic style building erected between 1359 and 1511. During the 18th century, the cathedral was decorated with Baroque altarpieces. A panel on the main alter shows the stoning of St. Stephen, Christendom’s first martyr.

In 1784, Mozart was able to afford a luxurious first-floor apartment with four large rooms, two small rooms and a kitchen (Mozarthaus, Domgasse 5). Although he lived here for only three years, it was longer than he stayed in any other apartment, and they are believed to have been the happiest years of his Viennese period.

This was a time of peak popularity for Mozart. He often played chamber music with his friend Haydn or performed concerts at the houses of nobility. And he wrote a large volume of varied works, perhaps the most important being the opera "The Marriage of Figaro."

Unfortunately, Mozart mismanaged his finances, and his residences became increasingly more simple as his few remaining years passed. In 1791, he died in debt of an undetermined feverish illness. On his deathbed, he worked on a "Requiem" for a mysterious patron who had paid him an advance, but he could not complete the piece.

The unfinished "Requiem" was played a few days later during a memorial service for the composer at St. Michael’s Church (Michaelerkirche, Michaelerplatz), where Haydn had once been the organist. Among those attending was theater director Emanuel Schikaneder, for whom Mozart had penned the opera "The Magic Flute."

However, Mozart’s funeral was held in the Crucifix Chapel (Kruzifixkapelle) on the back side of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. From there, his remains were taken to the suburban St. Marx Cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof, Leberstrasse 6-8) and interred according to the practice of the day, with four or five other deceased in an unmarked "shaft grave."

In 2001, when the Historic Center of Vienna was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was decided to expand the designation to include the late 19th century Ringstrasse surrounding the center and a so-called buffer zone reaching into the suburbs. The latter incorporated the Schonbrunn Palace, important as the political and intellectual center of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, where Mozart had played his first royal concert at the age of six.

As a result, Vienna’s world heritage area covers approximately 371 hectares and 1,600 buildings, which is about two per cent of all buildings in Vienna. With so many from which to choose, it might be difficult to decide where to begin were it not for the Schonbrunn Palace (Schloss Schonbrunn, Schonbrunner Schlossstrasse 47). The palace began life in 1696 as a hunting lodge, but between 1743 and 1763, it was transformed into a magnificent 1,441-room imperial residence. At the same time, the grounds were developed to include formal gardens, with walkways, fountains, a climate-controlled greenhouse and even a zoo. All are as popular with visitors today as they were when they first opened to the public in 1779.

Schonbrunn Palace is located outside the Ring, which encircles the oldest part of Vienna and was created after the old city wall was demolished in 1857. The Ring is a broad boulevard that passes spacious parks, public gardens, private mansions and government buildings. It changes its name at various points, but all its appellations end in "ring."

The first building erected on the Ring was the State Opera House (Staatsoper, Opernring 2), which opened in 1869 with Mozart’s "Don Giovanni." However, most of it had to be rebuilt after World War II, when a direct hit by a bomb left only its facade, outside walls and grand staircase standing. Performances at the elegant Neo-Renaissance style building tend to be formal affairs.

Also on the Ring is the National Theater (Burgtheater, Dr-Karl-Lueger-Ring 2). Built in 1888, it has a white marble exterior decorated with figures of famous writers. Like the State Opera, the National Theater is one of the most important centers of its genre in Europe.

More figures festoon the Art History Museum (Kunsthistoriches Museum, Burgring 7), this time representing artists throughout the past, up until the time the building was constructed in 1866. The museum houses an enormous collection of 16th and 17th century paintings, ornaments and glassware, and Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities.

Across from the Art History Museum and its twin Natural History Museum, sitting just inside the Ring, is the Hofburg Palace complex. The complex grew with the Habsburg empire over eight centuries, from 1279 until 1918, so it displays a variety of architectural styles.

Among areas of the Hofburg open to visitors are: the Palace Chapel built in 1449, where the Vienna Boys Choir still sings on Sundays at High Mass; the Spanish Riding School built in 1735, where the Lipizzaner Stallions strut their stuff; the Imperial Treasury, part of the original Medieval castle, containing the crown jewels and other valuables; and the Imperial Apartments, inhabited by Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth during the 19th century.

While Vienna’s wealth of antique architecture earned it a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation, part of the beauty of its buildings is that people continue to live, work, worship and be entertained in them, keeping them as vibrant today as they were when they were created and making them, like Mozart’s music, truly timeless.

British Columbia travel writer Toni Dabbs is a regular contributor to The Cultured Traveler.