Ringstrasse, Vienna

In the mid-19th century the "Ringstrasse" was built, encircling the Inner City of Vienna. Along the ring you find many major sights of Vienna, like the Hofburg (Imperial Palace), the Burgtheater, the Parliament, the City park, the Museums of Fine Arts and Natural History, and the New Town Hall. The most interesting part of the "Ring" between the Hofburg and the New Town Hall is easily walkable.

1 more image

The Central Tower is 98 m high.
A three-meter-high statue of Alexander Nehr crowns it.
This statue is very special to the residents of Vienna.
It’s an imitation of the statue of Emperor Maximilian I.
That statue is kept in Neue Hofburg.
Maximilian's statue has long been one of the symbols of Vienna.

1 more image

This magnificent building built in 1873 in Neogothic style is the place of pilgrimage of lots of tourists from all over the world, especially in summer when film festivals and concerts are held. There is a huge screen at the building wall and you can see different films in the evening.
You can listen to different concerts in Arkadenhof (Arcade Court) in the courtyard of the City Council building.
At the approaches to the Rathaus you can see on both side of the road in the park a great number of small cafes with national banners of the countries they represent: Croatia, Germany, Italy, Cuba, etc.
You can sit at a cafe and taste the dishes of the national cuisine there.

Vienna's Rathaus is an elaborate gothic confection which you certainly can't miss. It stands on it's own platz, with the Burg Theatre opposite and this part of the Ringstrasse is about as impressive as it gets. At Christmas the Rathaus is one of the city's principal festive showpieces. Immediately to the front stands the 150-year old spruce Christmas tree with no less than 1000 lights illuminating it. In front of this there is a crib and then the 143 stalls of the Christmas market. As if this wasn't enough all the trees growing in the platz are also decorated. This year the lovliest was the Herzerlbaum - tree of hearts, hung with 280 glowing red hearts . The town hallhas seven courtyards and these are open to visitors without any retrictions. To visit the inside, however you must take a guided tour. These tours are free and take place Monday, Wednesday and Friday ( except during council sessions and holidays). Groups must register in writing a month in advance.

I had the chance to see Mozart sculpture - white, pompous. Opposite to this sculpture there is green place with flowers, and the form of tremble clef. Mozart’s life popularized Vienna as a town of musicians.

Maria Theresien square is in Ring strasse, near gates to Hofburgs. There is the big sculpture of Maria Theresa - the Austrian-Hungarian empress, who was very important historical person. The dominant buildings of square are museums of history.

Some people in this side of city offer to take photo at the panorama of Maria Theresa and whole square.

Ringstrasse, which started to be designed in 1857, contains one of the famous buildings in Vienna - Parliament. It looks like the building of Roman Empire, with big columns and statues.

At that time I have been in Vienna, reconstruction works there began and I had opportunity to see not the whole Parliament.

Town Hall in German is Ratthaus. The shining Town Hall was built in the end on 19th century then all the main objects in Rigstrasse were built too. Here you can see nice building of Town Hall, green park, sculptures, the opposite view to National Theater.

As I remember, square is frequently shown in popular serial “Commissar Rex”.