The sorrows which have fallen on the royal house, and the great age of the Emperor have thrown a shadow over the nobility. But the middle-class people are not affected by it. A gayer, brighter, and withal more orderly crowd is rarely to be found in the capital of any kingdom. The Austrian takes his pleasure lightly, sipping his national wines beneath the avenues of trees in the wide boulevards. He revels in good music and fine acting. He is not extravagant and keeps wonderfully early hours. As is natural in such a cosmopolitan country, every race may be found represented on the boulevards and in the cafés. Greeks, Turks, Jews, Czechs, Germans, Slavs, and Magyars are to be met everywhere.
Oddly enough it is the Hungarian noblemen who are chiefly responsible for the exclusiveness of the Court at Vienna. It is they who, in acknowledging the Hapsburgs as their rulers, have imbued their fellow-subjects, the Austrians, with their own haughty temper. It is impossible to help mentioning here, rather than under the heading of their own capital, Budapest, the names of some of the princely Hungarian families such as the Esterhazys, whose castles stud the country in the neighbourhood of Buda. The estates of this one family alone cover an area equal to Ireland in extent, and include sixty towns and between 400 and 500 villages. Stories are told of the hauteur of the earlier Esterhazys, as when one of them remarked, “Below the rank of Baron no one exists,” and another who happened to be present at one of the famous Holkham sheep-shearings said casually to his host, the Earl of Leicester, that he possessed as many shepherds as the earl had sheep! Travel and mingling with the aristocracy of other countries has widened the views of later Esterhazys as to their own importance, and more than one of them is a welcome visitor to the English Court. It would be impossible indeed for any visitor not peculiarly favoured by introductions to get a glimpse of the interior of any of their feudal castles which still exist, such as that of Fraknó in the county of Sopron, the property of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, which stands high on an outcrop of rock and has fortified walls all round. There are twenty-one country seats belonging to the Esterhazys, ranging from a specimen such as this, through fine palaces, to huge modern buildings. There are acres of gardens, miles of forest, a famous racecourse and parks without end attached to these mansions. There are other names also rivalling that of Esterhazy, such as that of the Prince Festetics, and many another. But we have wandered far from Vienna.
The town itself consists of a rather small kernel enclosed by the celebrated Ringstrasse, a tree-lined boulevard, built over the old fortifications removed in 1858; beyond this an immense outer ring of suburbs is cut by a second promenade. The old saying that “Vienna is the least part of itself” is true more than ever now when it overflows farther and farther on to the broken vine-clad slopes which surround it.
VIENNA: CASTLE SCHOENBRUNN
It has little left of ancient interest, if we except the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, and the situation lacks any sort of charm. The town lies in the flat plain beside a canal. This canal is as a bow to the string of the river Danube, and was made in order to bring water facilities to the capital. The difficulty is to imagine why this particular place was chosen as a site rather than any other. On one side at a distance of a mile or so are the heights of Kablenburg and Leopoldsburg, which can be reached by rail, and from which the whole place can be seen lying unfolded like a map. The canal with its many bridges curves round at one’s feet, and at the outermost rim of its bow is the town with many fine buildings, including the Cathedral, standing up conspicuously out of the mass of lower ones. Away to the south is the lumpy hill of Wagram where Napoleon won a hard-fought battle. The city has tasted not once but many times in its history the bitterness of capture and was twice occupied by the all-conquering Napoleon.
But if the site shows little to attract attention, the town itself is full of charm, which is felt at once by any foreigner visiting it. Though the architecture shows Italian influence, yet it is characteristic and different from anything seen elsewhere; it carries its own stamp and is Viennese. Then there is a peculiar lightness and brightness in the streets for which it is difficult to account; it is somewhat the same atmosphere as that of Paris, but again has its own distinctive flavour. Everywhere in the boulevards, the shops, the cafés, one meets the same willingness to help, the same cheerful courtesy, the same attractive simplicity of manner; there is nothing over-elaborated or forced. There is plenty of light and air, and if Vienna cannot boast the attractions of ancient buildings, she can boast all the advantages of a modern city.
The chief features of the town are the Cathedral of St. Stephen, the Royal Palace of Schönbrunn, and the Prater.
The Cathedral, founded in 1144, is in an ornate style of Gothic, and its soaring spire, seen far and wide over the country, is balanced and finished by the pointed lesser towers, the gables and the windows, so that the principal note is one of uplifting. At one time the building, like most old churches, was encumbered by a mass of houses, hovels, etc., which clung to its sides like barnacles, but these were all swept away, and the glorious architecture is now seen to advantage. The celebrated tomb of Frederick IV. in the choir is of red marble ornamented by more than 300 figures and subjects. The whole building is one of the finest existing monuments of old German architecture in existence. The lofty vaulting of the nave is supported by eighteen pillars. Anton Pilgram’s chancel is particularly deserving of study, and the visitor should not miss the thirty-eight altars of sculptured marble. Most notable is the High Altar with the sculpture of the Stoning of St. Stephen.
Not far from the Cathedral is the Church of the Capuchins with its royal vault wherein are buried many of the Hapsburg line, including Maria Teresa and her husband. Noteworthy also are the Italian National Church, containing the monument of Metastasio, the Church of St. Ruprecht, founded in the eighth century, the remains of the Burgkapelle, or Court Chapel, and the Salvator Chapel in the former town hall.