Vienna

Vienna is Austria’s national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Vienna’s ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city.

About Vienna in brief

Summary Vienna Vienna is Austria’s national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Vienna’s ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the world’s most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. In 2018, it replaced Melbourne as the number one spot and continued as the first in 2019. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. Some claim that the name comes from vedunia, meaningforest stream, which subsequently produced the Old High German uuenia, the New High German wien and its dialectal variant wean. Others believe that thename comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction Vindobona, probably meaning “fair village” or “white settlement” The city is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year. Vienna was the world’s number-one destination for international congresses and conventions between 2005 and 2010. It was also home to the first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The name Vienna has a different, probably Slavic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area on the Danube river. The Celtic word vindos may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer who survived in Fhaionn mac Cumill. It could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city and in that of the district of Wieden, which means the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish languages, which in other European languages means the river Danube, which is the name of a river on which the city is situated. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroques and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks. It’s well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 20122013.