DiscoverEU Entries #3: Vienna

The greatness,

the sweetness,

its bitterness,

and the music. 

Artists paint her, authors write of her; the grand capital of Austria exceeds her reputation as an ordinary seat of government, a fact rooted in her geopolitical and cultural prestige, classical musical heritage, and the palatial architecture closely tied to the city’s monarchal history.

Immediately, from the first look at the structures - giant, majestic limestone buildings rich in golden highlights - we are met with a sense of intangibility; the splendorous manors and town institutions suggest a possibility they were meant to house divinities instead of people, and once, they may have truly done so, as her beauty, wealth, and political importance stem from housing one of Europe’s most dominant imperial dynasties, the House of Habsburg.

Aside from powerful monarchies and divine, legendary architecture, the city is also a well-celebrated mecca of traditional Austrian desserts, a couple of which even might sound familiar, the Apfelstrudel and Buchteln. However, the greatest baked Austrian feat remains the Sachertorte, a dense apricot-layered chocolate cake born in 1832 at the hands of a sixteen-year-old apprentice left with a task to invent a cake, creating a high-court pastry to soon become a national icon in the Viennese cuisine. These delicacies can be found alongside one of Vienna’s oldest, most cherished, and signature traditions still practiced in the capital today, the legendary Viennese coffeehouse culture; a custom which once brought intellect, art and literature together in a brightly lit, high-ceilinged salons for a writing, a talk or a simple read of the morning paper over a silver-served glass of water and a cup of Melange.

And yet, despite the triumphs defining of her name, Vienna is, above all else, the city of music. Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, all have made their name in the city of Vienna, her soil infused with rich harmonic heritage which echoes through grand gilded concert halls and open-air summer celebrations still to this day. Annually, the city hosts midsummer gatherings and festivals, one such taking place every July, the open-air Music Film Festival at Rathausplatz, where during warmed summer evenings, the city welcomes residents and travelers alike to symphonic performances, screenings of music history’s most iconic live concerts and live showcases, carrying a note that in Vienna’s empyreal image her sense of greatness remains, enthral thousands to her beauty and splendor, enough to write about her again and once more again.