Guide to the City of Vienna ( Wien ).
Map of Vienna, Austria Hotels with late rooms and last minute room booking discounts.

Vienna - Geography.
Vienna (German: Wien) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austria's nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). With a population of about 1.6 million, Vienna is the largest city and the cultural and political centre of Austria. Situated on both sides of the river Danube, Vienna is 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Austrian border.

Vienna - Hotels.
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Vienna is surrounded by the Austrian federal state of Lower Austria. It is one of the most well-known cities in Europe and has a prominent place in the history of Western civilization and world culture and history.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as other United Nations Offices and many international institutions and companies, are located in Vienna.

Vienna - History.
Vienna was originally a Celtic city founded around 500 BC. In 15 BC, it became a frontier city ("Vindobona") guarding the Roman Empire against the German tribes to the north. In the Middle Ages, it became the home of the Babenberg and, later, the Habsburg dynasties and through the latter the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Ottoman Turkish invasions of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries were stopped two times in total at Vienna. See the Battle of Vienna (1683). In 1815, Vienna was the site of the Congress of Vienna which redrew national boundaries in Europe after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo.

During the Cold War, Vienna was a hotbed of international espionage owning to its location in neutral Austria, between the Western and Eastern blocs.
Other famous Viennese features include the Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School, the Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben), Wiener Schnitzel, Sachertorte, and various pastries. Viennese cafes claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from the captured baggage after the second Turkish siege of 1683.

Vienna - Architecture.
There are buildings of all architectural styles in Vienna, from the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche to the Baroque Karlskirche, and classicist buildings all the way through to modern architecture. Likewise, Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession, Karlsplatz Metropolitan Railway Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world.

Vienna - Transport.
Vienna has an extensive tram network, which is one of the largest in the world, and also large number of bus routes. As all routes in densely populated areas operated at dense intervals, even during off-peak hours, it is usually not necessary to remember the time when the train or bus goes. Public transportation is thus used quite a lot.
The Viennese public transport is connected to services of train and bus lines operating 50 kilometres into the surrounding countryside, which can be used under the same system of tickets.
Public transportation mostly closes during night hours, but there is a special bus service, the Nightline, operating on the most important routes. However, most of these buses run only every thirty minutes. Vienna uses an "honor system." There are no gates or ticket checks when boarding transit lines, but ticket checks will occur, oftentimes by undercover employees.
In Vienna there are also two park railways: the Liliputbahn Prater in the Viennese Prater and the Donauparkbahn in Danube Park.

Vienna - Nightlife.
Vienna has a variety of nightlife options. Its low crime rate and extensive public transportation network make going out at night safe and convenient. Regular public transportation (subway, tram, and bus) runs until approximately 12:30. After this, nighttime bus lines provide service every half hour (fifteen minutes on some segments). Almost all night lines circle the inner city before heading outbound. Most lines are numerated the same as their corresponding daytime line. For example, if you take the 60 tramline followed by the U4 subway into the city, you can take the N60 bus directly from the city back out. At approximately 5 a.m. the daytime lines resume. Day and night lines now use the same tickets.

Starting in the 1980s, the pedestrian zone between the St. Ruprecht's Church (the oldest in Vienna) and the Bermuda Bräu microbrewery became the now-popular "Bermuda Triangle." It is the one area of the inner city district where relatively loud music and noise is tolerated. Many bars and small clubs are located in this neighborhood.

The First District in general has an abundance of night life options for any budget. There are many Irish pubs with pint prices starting at €2. On the other side of the price-spectrum are bars such as Sky Bar and Do & Co., which are frequented by the Austrian elite. Opening hours vary essentially by neighborhood noise ordinance agreements. In the summer, bars' outdoor seating often has to be vacated by 11 p.m. Generally there is an abundance of establishments open until 4 a.m. or later, especially on the weekend.

Larger nightclubs are generally located further out. Popular ones include U4 Disco, located on the U4 subway line, two medium sized clubs in the wine-producing neighborhood of Grinzing, and an ever-increasing amount of large clubs on the eastern side of the Danube, often located in shopping malls and cinema complexes. One popular club located near the center of the city is Flex, which is on the shores of the Donaukanal, and, like U4 is also located on the U4 subway line. Flex often features world-acclaimed dance music DJs.

In the summer, the eastern shore of the Danube is very popular. It is called Copa Cagrana, which is a word-play of Copacabana and Kagran, which is a sub-district nearby.
Starting in the late 1980s, the city undertook much effort to revitalize the area around the Westgürtel (Western Beltway), which had become a red-light district. Today, large portions of the Westgürtel have been modernized, with many restaurants, bars, and mini-clubs now located under the elevated tracks of the U6 subway line.

Vienna - Parks and Gardens.
Vienna possesses many park facilities and is one of the greenest cities in the world. The most famous parks and green areas are the Stadtpark, the Burggarten and Volksgarten, which belong to the Hofburg, the Schloßpark of Castle Belvedere with the Vienna Botanic Gardens, the Donaupark, the Schönbrunner Schlosspark, the Prater, the Augarten, the Rathauspark, the Lainzer Tiergarten, the Dehnepark, the Resselpark, the Votivpark, the Kurpark Oberlaa, the Auer-Welsbach-Park and the Türkenschanzpark, Laaer-Berg with the Bohemian Prater and the foothills of the Wienerwald (Viennese Forest), which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as Beserlparks, are everywhere in the inner-city areas.

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Location photography by Rohan Perera, maps: Deborah Joyce, graphics, programming and more Tony Quinn.