Exploring and Touring
After a walking tour and orientation, who knows what adventures we got up to?!
Today was our orientation and walking tour to start off our time in Vienna! Dr Stuart took us all sorts of places, each one more beautiful and historic than the last but here are a couple of highlights.
This is the Naturhistorisches Museum at Maria-Thereisien-Platz, home to the one of the largest museum collections in Austria. It is parallel to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, a very similarly designed building that holds a beautiful art museum. Together, they make up the Ringstraße Museums on Vienna's famous Ring Road. As were many things in and around Austria, the buildings which house the museums were commissioned by Emperor Franz Joseph I who reigned during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The buildings incorporate many features of architectural styles from various historical periods, particularly the Renaissance which is evident from the statues of Helios, Bacchus, and other Greek and Roman Gods that adorn both the insides and outsides of the buildings.
This is the statue of Maria Theresia that gives Maria-Theresien-Platz its name. After her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI failed to produce a male heir, thereby ending the male line of Hapsburgs, she came to rule as his successor. Prior to his death, Charles had changed the law through the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 which allowed for the complete, undivided, territory of the Hapsburg Empire to pass directly to a daughter in the line of succession rather than going to his brother who would have been heir had the law not changed.
This is Heldenplatz, German for "Place of Heroes." It stands in front of the Hofburg Palace and has statues of Prince Eugene of Savoy and Archduke Charles of Austria on horseback.
Heldenplatz was constructed under the order of Emperor Franz Joseph as part of a planned imperial forum which was never completed. The Hofburg Palace was one of the most impressive structures I've ever seen, it exuded power and I could fully feel the way it was meant to intimidate anyone who gazed upon it and show off the true might of the Emperors. Heldenplatz, however, is most well known as the location where, in 1938, Adolf Hitler announced his annexation of Austria. To stand in the same place where such a horrible person did one of the most significant things in history was at once horrifying and deeply impactful.
After the tour had concluded, I joined a group of other students who wanted to explore the 1st district and we walked down the Graben to the Plague Column. In 1679, Vienna was hit hard by a horrible plague epidemic. At the time, Emperor Leopold I fled the city but swore that he would construct a mercy column if the epidemic were to end that year. While this isn't the same column as the wooden one that was begun in 1679, this 1686 design was a beautiful testament to the artistry of sculpting and carving.
We explored for a long time and, eventually, found ourselves needing some food. On Dr. Stuart's recommendation we went to Siebensternbrau, a beer garden with a delicious hemp beer and some of the best sausages I've ever had. I have to say though, when my sausages arrived I was surprised to see how long they were. Back home, sausages are typically shorter and stubbier but these guys were extremely thin and incredibly long leading to some funny, if slightly raunchy, jokes from those of us at the table. Can't wait for more tomorrow!
