How Vienna Became The Largest Kingdom Of The Renaissance | Curious Traveler | Absolute History

i'm alice loxton and i present documentaries over on history hit tv if you're passionate about all things history sign up to history hit tv it's like netflix but just for history we've got hours of ad-free documentaries about all aspects of the past you can get a huge discount from history hit tv make sure you check out the details below and use the code absolute history all one word when you sign up now on with the show vienna is easily one of europe's most beautiful cities in fact i dare you to try to find an ugly building around here its architecture is almost exclusively baroque why well because of its curious imperial history welcoming in veen vienna the architecture the music the coffee and the soccer torta rivaling paris as europe's most beautiful city with centuries of royal history you can't help but feel a little royal yourself as you wander this beautiful city vienna was once the center of a major european empire covering thousands of miles ruled by one royal family for hundreds of years and where there are royals you need entertainment fit for royals so it was only natural that vienna also became a world leader of culture and classical music so here's what i'm curious about in vienna why are there so many giant ordinate public buildings all in a ring around vienna who were the habsburgs and maria theresa and cece where did a six-year-old musical genius perform when did austria shrink to a tenth of its original size why did francis ii become francis the first what is this greek goddess doing in vienna and what do these eagles symbolize and most importantly how do you take in all of vienna's beauty at once let's begin our curious journey into vienna's imperial history at the heart of the city and the heart of the empire at the sprawling palatial complex known as hofburg the hofburg is one of the largest royal palaces in all of europe with 18 wings 19 courtyards and 2 600 rooms hard to believe it all began as a humble medieval fortress and you can still see remnants of its medieval beginnings here in front of the palace like many european cities vienna can trace its roots to early celtic and roman settlements i guess if the location is good just keep building on top of it right the original castle dates back to the 13th century and hofburg just kept expanding and expanding and expanding through the 19th century but apparently even this wasn't enough space for the royal family because there is a summer palace too a sunny yellow one called schonbrunn shown broon translates to beautiful fountain and this area here actually has some very humble beginnings first it was just a farmstead and later on a simple hunting lodge but once maria theresa got a hold of it she did quite the makeover maria theresa was the only female ruler of the habsburg empire when she wasn't redecorating schonbrunn she was busy ruling her empire for four decades of the 18th century during her reign she had several wars waged against her some to contest her right to rule the habsburg territories how rude but no problem she dealt with it all and went on to reform the government improve the military and increase austria's overall wealth she also married for love not power which was rare at the time and had 16 children one of which was the legendary let them eat cake marie antoinette in between all that maria theresa received shonron palace as a wedding gift beats a set of steak knives right and it was here in 1762 that a very important moment for vienna and the world happened leopold a very ambitious musician he presented his young boy a six-year-old child prodigy mo said he gave a concert here at chamberlain palace in front of maria tracer and they were highly rewarded maria theresa was a singer herself and because of her love of music mozart returned to perform in schonbrunn many times we will explore his curious life in vienna's music legacy a bit later but back to that habsburg dynasty about a century after maria theresa one of her descendants austria's legendary emperor franz joseph was born here at schonbrunn palace emperor franz joseph ruled longer than any other austrian emperor 68 years in total now schonbrunn palace has more than 300 rooms but what's interesting is that franz joseph chose to live most of the time in two small rooms this was one of them his bedroom and look how small his bed is of his many accomplishments franz joseph's legacy includes helping to form the austro-hungarian empire and on a much lighter and prettier note he is also known for marrying the most beloved empress in austrian history with a cute little nickname empress elizabeth was known as cici and also known for her beauty her charm and her long long hair there's even a popular movie series about her cece was widely loved and adored kind of the princess diana of the 1800s she traveled the world charmed heads of state wrote poetry in defied convention including battling her meddling mother-in-law cece remains an austrian icon today but before empress cece before franz joseph even before the austrian empire austria can trace its roots back to the middle ages and one of the most powerful royal families in european history the habsburgs they came from a territory which is today's part of switzerland and in the 1278 they got control about the territory which is the core of today's austria and then they very slowly started to build up an empire the holy roman empire it's not a nation as you would think of it today so actually the french philosopher voltaire put it quite uh into a nutshell when he said the holy roman empire is neither uh holy nor roman and not an empire at all so the habsburgs ruled over that non-holy non-roman nun empire for centuries although the titles of those rulers changed in the early 1800s when france's napoleon the first started causing trouble in europe so a habsburg descendant named francis did something drastic to save the empire he ended it and what's even more curious this particular francis was born francis ii but died francis the first what the heck how did francis ii become francis the first because that doesn't normally happen well yeah that's a typical austrian solution so he's francis ii as the holy roman emperor and francis the first as the first austrian emperor excellent he just didn't want to be number two he wanted to be number one that's all it was and it's important to note that this austrian empire covered a whole lot more than just modern-day austria at its peak it covered 10 times the size of today's country starting from the west today is austria then portions huge portions of north italy then in the north there was all of today's czech republic the sausage parts of southern poland all of slovakia all of hungary the western portion of the ukraine then two-thirds of today's romania and all of slovenia then croatia and all the northern parts of serbia also bosnia and herzegovina oh is that all so how and why did this huge empire split apart well a growing resentment towards imperial rule and a little thing called world war one happened in october 1918 the various nations their various ethnic or language groups of the empire started to declare himself independent and here's where it gets really interesting after those little states were created there almost wasn't a little austria left at all austria actually was then uh nicknamed the country that nobody wanted because at the time actually even the austrians people were not so convinced about the viability of this so much smaller country in part because the smaller country was incredibly vulnerable after world war one as the world crept towards world war ii and so there was a very strong tendency of being fused or merged with germany so after two world wars and some serious downsizing austria had a bit of an identity crisis so it is no surprise that today's austrians and viennese like to identify with happier times and the proud legacy of their habsburg and imperial roots especially as a viennese person you always have this habsburg background the history background you always feel like still especially when you wander along the ring strass you think that austria is still a power that matters which we don't but you know you live on the on the backdrops of an empire what is this ring strassa our viennese friend speaketh of it is the oh so grand boulevard of vienna a circular one hence the name ring strassa or ring street a grand project of grand buildings parks and gardens all began around 1858 under the reign of franz joseph much like paris's houseman project vienna's ringstrassa tore down the old city to erect the new while the ring follows the medieval city walls those actual walls were torn down only a few fragments of the original wall still remain like i said throughout history if the location is good just keep building on top of the same spot as you play ring around the strassa you'll see each public building is a temple dedicated to its function from a temple to music the vienna opera house to a temple to the empire the hofburg palace and instead of one style for all the buildings the ring strassa is a gorgeous gallery of all different european architectural styles beginning with greek and roman the parliament buildings are perhaps the most stunning of the ringstrasse buildings and you can't help but notice it kind of looks like a greek temple right well that's no accident not only was neoclassicism the architectural style of the time but the architects wanted to make the statement that the austro-hungarian empire was just as powerful as greece or rome and standing proudly at the entrance we have the goddess athena the goddess of wisdom and at her feet surrounding her we have four allegories of the four rivers of the austro-hungarian empire next around the ringstrassa we start to see double this is the beautiful kunst historic museum or fine arts museum built between 1871 and 1891 to house the massive art collection of the habsburg family now the building itself is just one of the many beautiful baroque buildings as part of the ring strauss project in fact the architecture was so popular that they built a duplicate that's right it's twin right across the plaza and this building is the natural history museum and right in the middle is our friend maria theresa still holding court high above vienna next for something completely different vienna's beautiful city hall is a little bit different than the other buildings along the ring strassa whereas many of them are the baroque style this one is neo-gothic and was modeled after many other beautiful gothic churches and secular buildings found across europe now in german city hall translates to rat house so if you hear someone referring to the rat house know that is not a commentary on politicians being rats last but not least all the way at the top we have a beautiful statue called the rat house man which came to be the beloved symbol of vienna and just across from city hall is vienna's temple 2 theater the berg theater was the last of the beautiful buildings to be built here along the ring strassa we have all around the building gorgeous decorations of playwrights and literary figures from throughout the centuries at the top we have the god apollo with the muse of tragedy on his right and comedy on his left and inside we have gorgeous paintings by gustav klimt vienna's favorite artist now for our last building remember how the medieval wall was torn down for the ring strassa well there are a few medieval buildings still standing within the ring strassa and there is one that stands taller above the rest saint stephen's cathedral is a beloved icon of vienna and it is believed the version that we see today is the third church to stand on this very spot the most interesting feature of course are those twin spires you can see the south one here that extends all the way into the heavens with the gold on top and then of course the matching north one on this side at the exact same height oh wait that one was never finished why wasn't it ever finished well there are many legends about that including financial troubles the threat of a turkish siege and plain old this gothic style has gone out of style problems so today it's fun to ponder all these possibilities but more importantly saint stephen's cathedral is the symbol of vienna the original church was built in the 12th century and has a quite curious history it was severely damaged by fire during world war ii but miraculously rose again in just a few short years lovely saint stephen's cathedral has stood tall in the center of vienna's inner city for more than 700 years joseph haydn was a choir boy here and mozart got married here and that unfinished north tower was capped with a renaissance spire and houses the largest bell in all of austria that soaring south tower is still the highest point in vienna's inner city but most curious of all is saint stephen's cathedral's rooftop with 230 thousand multi-colored glazed tiles [Music] on one side there's a double-headed eagle and the other two single-headed eagles why well the double-headed one represents the habsburg empire symbolizing many things including its rule over east and west rule granted by god and the elected people and later the dual monarchies of austria and hungary and what about those single-headed eagles this one on the left is the code of arms for the republic of austria with the one-headed eagle representing austria's sovereignty it is often depicted with broken chains at the eagle's feet symbolizing austria's liberation from germany in 1945 and this one on the right is the city of vienna's coat of arms the shield on the eagle's chest with a white cross over a red background is believed to have been part of the seal of vienna since the 13th century all that heavy history is surrounded by light and mirth here at stevens plots at christmastime [Music] so let's continue with some light and mirth and beautiful classical music which vienna is known around the world for [Applause] from the 16th to the 20th centuries music wasn't just a light pastime here it was a status symbol for the imperial family of austria and vienna became a leading european center for music with names like strauss beethoven and haydn and that fine music legacy continues today going to see a classical music concert in vienna in a setting like this is as common as going to the movies and this luxurious setting is the lovely palais ausberg built between 1706 and 1710 it is considered vienna's oldest baroque palace and it is a pretty darn perfect place to listen to the world's best classical music because not only did emperor franz joseph attend balls here but some of the world's best composers performed here including a very special one named wolfgang wolfgang amadeus mozart is one of the greatest composers in the history of classical music the magic flute don giovanni the marriage of figaro and the haunting requiem mozart is universally considered a musical genius it is believed that mozart began playing music at the age of three and as an adult his genius flourished as he was able to create music in all the different genres of his time and his impact on vienna is as grand as his music even today you can't pass a corner in vienna without seeing something mozart especially tasty mozart kugel chocolates but i digress but mozart was born in salzburg so why is he so linked to vienna [Music] well the perfect person to ask that question to is our guide at the mozart house who just happens to have the same name as mozart's wife costanza what brought him here to vienna he came here because his then boss the salzburg archbishop of juan colorado told him to come to vienna and to work from vienna for him but then again mozart was a very freedom kind of loving person and he was really fed up this badly paid position so he had a little bit of luck maybe because he had a huge fight with the archbishop and then he just said okay here in vienna i can become a freelance composer and he became one oh yes from the beginning the only thing that rivaled mozart's talent was his rebellious spirit while it was a struggle at first eventually mozart thrived in vienna calling it quote the land of the piano and some of his most famous works were performed for the first time here in vienna and written here in vienna too some of them in this beautiful little 17th century apartment this is the apartment of mozart mozart spent his last 10 years of his life in vienna and during the time he moved 13 times so we had 14 apartments this is the only apartment which still exists today all other apartments are gone and he moved in here on the 29th of september in 1784 and he moved out again on the 23rd of april in 1787 so he lived here for over two and a half years which was the longest time he spent in an apartment but why did mozart move so much did he just have fickle tastes needed new inspiration for each composition nope the reason was much more practical he never saved money if he had money he just spent it all and so sometimes he had to move to small apartments he was known for that for the money he would get he was spend it out on you know parties and all sort of you know unsavory things he had a good time but whereas maybe we think of him as a very serious genius he was not a serious person at all no he was very very funny he loved to make jokes and he loved to make up names for for people and but he also worked very hard i think that's very fascinating about him and you can see some of his most famous works here at the mozart house museum during the time he lived here he composed so many pieces like the opera le nozze de firo eight piano concertos so sonatas and quartets so many things were composed here it's unbelievable how he did it and today you can stand in the very same room where mozart would try out his new works for his friends but in this room also house music evenings would take place so string people for string quartets will come in and play the news music of mozart he would invite his friends guests and they would listen to the music so this all happened in this room that's exciting so it's possible that he was sitting in this room looking out down the same very street sure he did yeah because the view you have here is an authentic view because the houses to your left and right we're still standing we're standing 250 years ago as well so yeah you have the same view that mozart had [Music] and today you can almost hear mozart's music still spilling out of this window onto the streets of vienna from a holy roman empire that was neither holy nor roman nor really an empire to a once humble celtic settlement and roman fort that became the royal palace that just kept expanding and expanding and expanding to a hunting lodge built on a spring that became the sunny summer palace where a young mozart gave a concert for habsburg queen whose descendant changed his name from the second to the first and created a new empire which paved the way for austria's longest reigning emperor who put a ring on austria's most beloved empress and another type of ring around beloved vienna that followed those medieval walls and then decorated it with temples to music art science culture government and of course the people in all manner of shapes styles and symbols and inside that ring is a proud vestige of those medieval days a church with a wonky tower and important symbols of austria's turbulent history and just steps away on a lovely little street if you close your eyes you just might hear the music of an austrian-born musical genius trying out his latest composition inside this precious apartment above vienna has so much to be curious about thank you for joining us on our educational journey and hopefully now you're even more curious about the who what where why when and how of vienna as they say here in austria avid or zane

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 170,368

Keywords: Austrian historical figures, Austrian historical sites, Austrian monarchy, European empires, European heritage, European royal family, Habsburg family secrets, Historic Austrian monarchy, Imperial Vienna tour, Renaissance history lessons, Vienna culture, Vienna travel guide, classical composers, famous monarchs, grandeur of the past, historical majesty, royal bloodline, royal extravagance, royal prestige, royal residences

Id: teKkUP0ZkVA

Length: 24min 19sec (1459 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 15 2022