Vienna

Why Vienna works

Schonbrunn Palace, the Habsburg dynasty's 1,441-room summer residence, holds formal gardens climbing to the Gloriette pavilion, offering a sweeping view back over the palace to the city skyline beyond — a scale of imperial ambition matched by the Hofburg, the Habsburgs' winter palace in the city centre, now home to the Spanish Riding School's Lipizzaner stallions and the Sisi Museum devoted to the tragic Empress Elisabeth. St Stephen's Cathedral, its tiled roof forming a mosaic of the Austrian eagle, anchors the pedestrianised old town, where coffee houses like Cafe Central and Cafe Sacher preserve a 19th-century ritual of newspaper-reading over melange coffee and slices of Sachertorte, the city's dense chocolate cake, invented in 1832. Vienna's musical heritage runs deeper than any other European capital — Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Strauss all composed here, and the Vienna State Opera and Musikverein continue nightly performances, with standing-room tickets making world-class opera accessible on nearly any budget. The Naschmarkt, a long open-air market, sells produce and street food from across the former Habsburg empire, while the Prater park's 1897 Ferris wheel offers views over the Danube. Vienna is regularly ranked among the world's most liveable cities, its efficient trams, extensive parks and relatively low cost for a Western European capital.

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