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A rigid political system under the state chancellor Metternich led to a period of calm and a rich cultural life (1815–48), but social discontent returned and led to the revolution of 1848. Upheavals reached a peak in the October Revolution. Metternich was ousted from power and a conservative monarchy under Franz Joseph I was installed (see p15).

When the medieval bastions around the inner city were knocked down at the end of the 19th century and the Ringstrasse was laid out, Theophil von Hansen constructed a building in the Italian Renaissance style in 1872–6 to house Vienna’s art school. The school, founded by Peter Strudel in 1692, moved here from the Strudelhof building on the academy’s completion. The Academy of Fine Arts became internationally famous for its training of painters, sculptors, architects, graphic artists and stage designers. It also houses a gallery of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, 19th-century Austrian works, and a copper etching collection of more than 60,000 prints and drawings (see p44).

One of the world’s largest and most valuable collections of graphic art is gathered in the Albertina palace, named after its founder, Duke Albert of SachsenTeschen (1738–1822). Although there is no permanent exhibition, three halls are used for several temporary exhibitions, including the Habsburg State Rooms. (see p44).

This huge hospital complex with 11 courtyards is an oasis of tranquillity. At end of the 18th century Emperor Joseph II converted an existing house for the poor into a general hospital, which included a “birth house”, a “foundling house” and a “mad house” – today this houses a pathological museum (see p47). The complex was still used as a hospital up to the early 1980s but was then given to Vienna University and adapted for the the campus’s arts departments.

The Anker Uhr clock spans two wings of an insurance company building and was installed between 1911 and 1917 by Franz von Matsch. Every day 12 pairs of figures, each symbolizing a period in Vienna’s history, step forward on the hour. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius begins, followed by Duke Leopold VI, Maria Theresa and Joseph Haydn, among others. At noon all 12 figures parade across the bridge.

In March 1938 Adolf Hitler marched on Vienna and declared Austria part of the Third Reich. Vienna was badly bombed during World War II, with many of its famous landmarks destroyed.

In AD 976 the Babenberg ruler Leopold was appointed Duke of the Eastern March, and in 1030 the name Vienna was mentioned for the first time. In 1156 Vienna became the residence of the Babenbergs and developed into a centre of trade.

These two 18th-century palace buildings are beautifully linked by landscaped gardens filled with statuary (see pp22–5).

The Burg, as the theatre is affectionately called by the Viennese, was among the first theatres to be built in the German-speaking world. Gottfried Semper and Carl von Hasenauer designed this spectacular building with its Renaissance façade over a period of 14 years (1874–88). On its completion, the Court Theatre, founded in 1776, moved into the new building on the Ringstrasse. A grand staircase with frescoes by Gustav Klimt and his brother Ernst leads from the foyer to the auditorium (see p56).

The centrepiece of the Neuer Markt is Georg Raphael Donner’s fountain (1737–9) with an allegory of Providentia, the divine providence, accompanied by four cherubs towering over a pool. They are surrounded by four figures representing the Austrian rivers Traun, Enns, March and Ybbs. During Maria Theresa’s reign the naked statues were removed as they were regarded as improper, but they were replaced in the 19th century (see p53).