A full-immersion walk in culture in a capital that still offers slowness: (re) discovering Vienna in autumn
“The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, those of other cities with asphalt,” said Karl Kraus. Just stroll through its elegant squares to breathe its grandeur, which dates back to the Habsburg Empire, from Franziskanerplatz to Josefsplatz or Judenplatz. Palaces rich in gold, mirrors, decorations and inlays. Streets dotted with high fashion shops, art galleries, antique dealers. Not to mention the museums, from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, to the magnificent Belvedere, from the MAK, the Museum fuer Angewandte Kunst-Museum Of Applied Arts, where you can take a dip in the history of Austrian design walking among fabrics, ceramics and furniture from every era, to the National library, a masterpiece of Baroque art.
In addition to its famous artistic, historical and cultural charm, with which it has always enchanted the world, Vienna has another side, carefree, young, playful, made up of museums for children, parks, green spaces, squares that become living rooms to be lived in, which make it a perfect family friendly destination.
To discover the city through the eyes of a child, you certainly start from the famous Prater, a large oasis in the heart of the city, which has become one of the most famous symbols of Vienna, where you can immerse yourself completely in nature. A park much loved by local families, with ancient roots: just think that the Ferris wheel was created in 1827. Once this river park was the beloved hunting territory of the Habsburgs. Today in the famous Volksprater, located in the Leopoldstadt district, you pass on the main tree-lined avenue from Praterstern to the Lusthaus, among poplars, meadows and dense undergrowth. In addition to the greenery, there are many attractions, from the classic rides, with a slightly nostalgic flavor, to the house of mirrors, the haunted house, the roller coaster and the little train that takes you around the park.
An unmissable stop for young and old is the Naturhistorisches Museum Vienna, the Natural History Museum. An immense wunderkammern guarded by an imposing (and magnificent) building opposite the Hofburg, the imperial palace, where the Habsburgs collected everything over time: 20 million objects, from precious stones to minerals, insects of all kinds, prehistoric animals, artifacts
Very ancient, archaeological finds, even skeletons of flying dinosaurs as well as embalmed specimens of extinct animal species. A collection of inestimable value. Among the most valuable pieces is the “Venus of Willendorf”, a 29,500-year-old statuette of only eleven centimeters, a masterpiece of Paleolithic sculpture found in 1908 in the Wachau valley in Lower Austria.
A stone’s throw away is the MuseumsQuartier, one of the largest cultural areas in the world, with an area of 60,000 square meters. Here once was the palace of the emperor’s stables: today, in a mix of baroque buildings and modern architecture, the spaces host amazing museums – from the new Leopold to the Mumok – the Children’s Theater, the Kunsthalle Wien, the Architecture Center and the Designforum. All around the large square, a real open air lounge with colorful and pop design seats, restaurants, cafes, bookstores and shops with a postmodern style.
A short walk takes us to the Burggarten, the English-style garden, a World Heritage Site, where you can admire the statue of Mozart. In ancient times this was the private park of Emperor Franz Joseph I: it houses the only monument of the emperor, husband of Empress Sissi. In addition to picnics and green walks, the Burggarten is also home to the Butterfly House, where hundreds of exotic butterflies live, and the Palmenhaus, an Art Nouveau greenhouse with large windows, green steel beams and high ceilings, which houses a restaurant perfect for families, where you can taste traditional Austrian dishes such as the Wiener Schnitzel.
The Schonbrunn Palace is an unmissable stop. The former summer residence of the Habsburgs, owned by the family since 1569, is one of the most beautiful Baroque buildings in Europe, famous for its luxurious imperial chambers and magnificent garden. Here resided the empress Maria Theresa, the emperor Franz Joseph, the empress Elizabeth with all her retinue: there were 1,441 rooms available to the emperor Franz Joseph and Sissi. We move from the surprising Hall of Mirrors, the scene of Mozart’s first performances at the age of six, to the Vieux-Laque room in which he conferred Napoleon, up to the Blue Chinese Hall, where Emperor Charles I signed his act of renunciation of government in 1918 marking the end of the monarchy.Today this gem is part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage and worth a visit. After the tour through the sumptuous rooms of the palace, we continue with the family with the wing of the palace dedicated to children, home to a museum suitable for young visitors: “Living the Schönbrunn Palace” captures visitors of all ages making them relive the everyday life of time. You can wear the baroque dresses and wigs, you can learn the art of makeup at the court and try the favorite games of princes and princesses.
The visit continues among the enchanting gardens, where we find another interesting point: the Zoological Garden, the oldest in the world, dating back to 1752, elected for years the best in Europe, where animals from all over are housed in a suggestive park , among historical architectural testimonies, winter gardens and avant-garde enclosures.
Changing atmosphere, among the creative streets of the center, near the sparkling Mariahilfer Str., Is the Haus des Meeres, the House of the Sea. An extraordinary redevelopment project: the anti-aircraft tower of the Esterhazy Park has been transformed from a gloomy Nazi artifact in reinforced concrete into the largest Austrian aquarium, one of the most popular attractions in the capital. Each floor houses an environment, with tanks and fish of all kinds, white tip and black tip sharks, the 150,000 liter tank that houses hammerhead fish, the 10 meter long Atlantic Tunnel, the area of Madagascar, where a striped mongoose and a giant tortoise and so on and so forth.
Going up, you get to the roof, where you stop at the 360 Ocean Sky Bar Restaurant, with a viewpoint that offers an amazing view of the great beauty of the city.