Hey everyone I'm Joel on the Road. And today, my UNESCO World Heritage Journey is at the
Historic City of Vienna, in Austria.
So this is Vienna, the grand imperial capital of the Habsburgs, and the seat of the Holy
Roman Empire for hundreds and hundreds of years. It's one of the grandest, largest and
most impressive capital cities anywhere in the world I think, and I think it was Bill
Bryson who once said that if aliens ever land on Earth and go looking for the world's capital
city, they will probably think it's Vienna. The buildings are just that impressive. It's
one of my favourite cities; I've been here a few times, and I'm really excited to show
everyone around. Let's go!
Behind me you can see one of the grandest buildings in Vienna, the Natural History Museum,
and it's part of the Museumsquartier district on the edge of town. Now, directly opposite
is the Fine Art Museum as well, which is a matching building, and they're both very very
beautiful. They're arranged around a large square and park, centred on a statue of the
greatest empress of the Habsburgs, Maria Theresa.
This is the Burgtor, or the Castle Gate, and it's the only remaining part of Vienna's old
city walls that were torn down in the 1850s to make way for the Ringstrasse, or the ring-road
that runs around the ancient core of Vienna. Now it was also the main entrance to the palace
of the Hofburg, so if you've never seen what's on the other side of the gate, you're in for
a treat - let's go.
The is the Neuburg, the newest part of the Habsburg palace here in Vienna, which is just
a colossal complex. Now despite its immense size here, the Neuburg is actually unfinished.
It took them 30 years to build what you can see, but it's only a quarter of what they
planned to build. By the end of it, World War 1 was happening, and of course Austria
collapsed at the end of it, so they never got to finish it.
Vienna actually began life as a Roman military encampment, and although there's not much
left of the old *old* city, there's still a little bit that pokes out here and there.
Like these Roman ruins that you can see behind me, dug up in front of the Hofburg at Michaelsplatz.
In addition to the economic, military and political power of the Habsburgs, Vienna was
also a cultural power as well. And that cultural power was centred right here, at the state
Opera House. Mozart's famous opera, the Marriage of Figaro was first performed right in this
building behind me, and many many other famous composers like Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert,
and Strauss all got their starts here in Vienna. They even invented the waltz!
Now this is one of the little hidden secrets of Vienna, because underneath this unassuming
orange chapel that you can see behind me is actually the Habsburg family crypt. And there's
five hundred years worth of emperors, kings, and other royalty buried down there.
Let's check it out.
This is the plague monument, and it's one of my favourite monuments in all of Vienna.
It was built in 1693 in memory of the one third of Vienna's population that was wiped out
in a devastating plague. The gold cap that you can see at the top is to the Brotherhood
of the Holy Trinity, who were one of the first groups in Europe to use science to turn back
the plague, rather than just prayer.
This is the cathedral of St Stephen, the oldest building in the city and right at the centre
as well. All of the roads in the old town lead pretty much directly to this spot. Now
it's not the original "original" church, this one dates from around the 14th century when
it was rebuilt after a fire, but it's still very very beautiful. And I feel like we've
hardly scratched the surface here in Vienna, there's just so much to do and to see. It's
an incredible place, and one of my favourite cities, but we are going to have to leave
it there. So thank you very much for watching, don't forget to Like and Subscribe. I'm Joel
on the Road, and I'll see you at the next World Heritage site.