The most notable buildings are the Houses of Parliament and Palaces of Justice, the Academy of Sciences, containing valuable art collections, and a fine library, the Bourse, and the Redoute buildings, all on the Franz Josef Quay; the National Museum Theatre and University on Museum Street; the Industrial Art Museum, on Ulloi Street; the Royal Military Academy, in the Orczy Gardens; and the Leopold Basilica on Andrassy Street, one of the most handsome thoroughfares in Europe. There are a parish Church, a Greek Church, and a Jewish synagogue, and numerous parks, including one on Margaret Island in the Danube.
Both towns have valuable baths and sulphur springs, and the united cities form a large manufacturing center for machinery, spirits, and tobacco, cutlery and metal-work, glass, etc. The most important industry is milling, the trade in grain and flour being enormous, and there is considerable commerce in cattle and swine, honey, wax, bacon and hides, timber, and coal.
Salzkammergut (Sahltzkammergoot´), called the Austrian Switzerland, one of the most picturesque regions of Europe, lies in a district famous for its salt mines and brine springs, and hence known as the Salzkammergut (“Estate of the Salt Office”). The scenery combines in rare beauty the features of valley, mountain and lake. The highest peak is the Dachstein (nine thousand eight hundred and thirty feet); of its lakes the most famous are Hallstatt, Traun or Gmünden, Atter, St. Wolfgang, Aber, Mond, and Zell. The chief seats of the salt-works are Ischl, Hallstatt, and Ebensee.
THE GOTHIC POWDER TOWER, PRAGUE
Other Important Places.—Trieste, the only great seaport of the Empire, is at [534] the head of its gulf, on the North Adriatic. Pola, near the southern extremity of the peninsula of Istria, is the chief naval station of Austria.
Linz, on the Danube, is the seat of a considerable trade. Steyr, on the river Enns, is noted for its steel and iron industry.
Northern Styria is the center of the Austrian steel and iron industry, carried on more especially around Leoben. The capital, Graz, is a staple place for the manufacture of machinery, and one of the most agreeable of Austrian capitals, and a favorite place of residence.
Semmering, an Austrian Alpine pass (three thousand two hundred and nineteen feet) connecting Vienna with Graz, though the lowest of the Alpine passes, is traversed by the first railway (1854) to be carried across the Alps. The viaducts of the Semmering railway, some of them with several tiers of arches, are among the grandest works of engineering. The Semmering road begins at Gloggnitz, at an elevation of one thousand four hundred and twenty-six feet, and is carried along the face of abrupt precipices over bridges and through tunnels, affording views of the grandest and wildest scenery en route. This part of the road is twenty-five miles long, and cost more than seven millions of dollars.
Innsbruck, on the Inn, is the capital of the Tyrol, the most alpine part of the monarchy. Its principal rivers are the Inn, in the north, and the Etsch or Adige, in the south, the mountain range separating them being crossed by the Pass of the Brenner (five thousand eight hundred and sixty feet). On the Adige are Botzen, Trent, and Roveredo, the two last inhabited by Italians.