Capital of Austria, on the river Danube at
the foot of the Wiener Wald (Vienna Woods);
population (1986) 1,481,000. Industries
include engineering and the production of
electrical goods and precision instruments.
The United Nations city 1979 houses the
United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO) and the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). features
Renaissance and baroque architecture; the
Hofburg (former imperial palace); the
18th-century royal palaces of Schonbrunn and
Belvedere, with formal gardens; the Steiner
house 1910 by Adolf Loos; and several notable
collections of paintings. Vienna is known for
its theatre and opera. Sigmund Freud's home
is a museum, and there is a university 1365.
history Vienna was the capital of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire 1278-1918 and the
commercial centre of E Europe. The old city
walls were replaced by a wide street, the
Ringstrasse, 1860. After much destruction in
World War II the city was divided into US,
British, French, and Soviet occupation zones
1945-55. Vienna is associated with J Strauss
waltzes, as well as the music of Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert and the
development of atonal music. Also figuring in
Vienna's cultural history were the Vienna
Sezession group of painters, the
philosophical Vienna Circle, and the origins
of psychoanalysis originated here.