Exploring Austria's Art: A Cultural Journey

Austria, a landlocked country in Central Europe, occupies an area of 83,879 square kilometres (32,383 square miles) and is bordered by Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. The country is divided into nine federal states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, and has a population of around 9 million. Austria's landscape is characterised by mountains and forests, with two-thirds of the country covered by woods and meadows.

Vienna, the capital of Austria

Vienna is the capital of Austria and its primary city, with a population of about 1.75 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan area, more than 20% of Austria's population). It is the country's most populous city and one of its nine states. Vienna is the cultural, economic, and political centre of Austria.

The city is located in the northeast of Austria, between the foothills of the Alps and the Carpathians, where the Danube, Europe's second-longest river, has cut its course through the mountains. Vienna is situated on the right bank of the river and is surrounded by Lower Austria. It is about 50km west of Slovakia and its capital Bratislava, 60km northwest of Hungary, and 60km south of Moravia in the Czech Republic.

The history of Vienna can be traced back to the first post-Christian century, when the Romans established the military camp Vindobona. The city became the seat of the Babenbergs, who ruled Austria from 976 to 1246, and was granted city rights in 1221. Vienna became the seat of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, a position it held until the empire's dissolution in 1806. With the formation of the Austrian Empire in 1804, Vienna became its capital and has been the capital of all its successor states.

Vienna has been among the largest German-speaking cities in the world and was the largest in the 18th and 19th centuries, peaking at two million inhabitants. It is host to many major international organisations, including the United Nations, OPEC, and the OSCE. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Vienna has been called the "City of Music" due to its rich musical history. Many famous classical musicians, such as Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Haydn, lived and worked in the city. Vienna was also home to Sigmund Freud, the world's first psychoanalyst.

The city is known for its architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße, which is lined with grand buildings, monuments, and parks.

Vienna has been voted one of the most liveable cities in the world many times. It has been praised for its parks, the Vienna Woods, and its vineyards. The city has a borderline oceanic and humid continental climate, with warm summers and relatively dry and cold winters.

Upper Austria

The state is divided into 15 districts (Bezirke), three Statutarstädte, and 438 municipalities. Historically, it was traditionally divided into four regions: Hausruckviertel, Innviertel, Mühlviertel, and Traunviertel.

The majority of Upper Austrians are Christian, with 62% of the population identifying as Roman Catholic as of 2020.

The landscape of Upper Austria is characterised by mountains and forests. The northeastern portion of the state is part of the Austrian granite plateau, called the Mühlviertel (Mühl District), which lies north of the Danube River. The southern part of the state is Alpine, comprising limestone mountains and the Flysch foothills, including most of the Salzkammergut resort region, known for its lakes and high peaks.

Salt deposits in the region have attracted settlement since prehistoric times, particularly in Hallstatt, which has the oldest archaeological evidence of the Celts in Europe. Salt is still mined in the Salzkammergut today, along with granite and limestone quarrying in other parts of the state.

Farming occupies more than half of Upper Austria's land, with more than half of the agricultural land used as pasture, mainly in the highest regions. Stock farming is most intensive in the Alpine foreland, where grain, sugar beets, potatoes, and fruit are also grown.

Lower Austria

The historic heartland of Austria, Lower Austria, has a rich cultural heritage and a varied landscape. The region's treasures include ancient artefacts like the Venus of Willendorf and modern architectural marvels such as the Government Quarter and the Cultural District in St. Pölten, Europe's youngest state capital. Lower Austria's unique geographic location, at the intersection of Alpine, Pannonian, and northern and southern European climate zones, has resulted in a harmonious blend of landscapes, including alluvial forests, steppes, alpine pastures, lakes, gorges, and river valleys.

The nine federal states

Austria is a federal republic consisting of nine federal states, or Bundesländer in German. Each state has its own capital. Vienna, the country's capital and most populous city, is both a city and a state. Here is a list of the nine federal states of Austria:

• Vienna
• Graz
• Linz
• Salzburg
• Innsbruck
• Klagenfurt
• Upper Austria (Oberösterreich)
• Lower Austria (Niederösterreich)
• Carinthia (Kärnten)

The Austrian Alps

The Central Eastern Alps, also known as the Austrian Central Alps or just Central Alps, are the main chain of the Eastern Alps, not only in Austria but also in adjacent regions of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, and Slovenia. The Central Alps have the highest peaks in the Eastern Alps and are located between the Northern and Southern Limestone Alps. The term "Central Alps" is commonly used in Austrian geography as one of the country's seven major landscape regions. The Central Alps form the eastern part of the Alpine divide and its central chain of mountains. The range has the most glaciation in the Eastern Alps, and its peaks dominate the region to the west.

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