Today we had our first city walk, which is literally a walk around the city of Vienna, and we went around the first district today seeing how the city was expanded throughout the ages. We had a great tour guide, which is actually an architectural teacher at the university of Vienna, and he explained how the city of Vienna came to be, why it was important and how it grew to be the way it is today. We started at the Stephansdom (St. Stephan's Church) and walked on from there on our "2,000 years in 2 hours" walk. However, before I talk about that, I think that a history lesson is in order. (But it is all from memory so it should NOT be used as a resource for any thing important!!)
In the beginning, (hahaha I love how I start off like some kind of fairy tail, but any way) Vienna was created along the Danube river for two reasons. One, because it was at the crossing of two major trading lines, one being the river and the other a land route. Two, because the Roman's needed a city to act as a protector of a more, at the time, important Roman city down the Danube. As a Roman settlement, it was attacked many times by the Turks and Arabs, so they built up walls and such to protect the city. Other than that not much is known about Vienna until about 900 AD (or CE which ever fits your fancy). Then, the Stephansdom was built in 1147. |
It was built as a sort of marker to say that Vienna was on the map, not, as was traditional, because Vienna had a bishop. The bishop actually came quite a bit later. What I found really interesting was the fact that they built this cathedral outside the original city. I could not understand why you would build something as important as a cathedral outside the city wall where it could be so easily attacked, but I guess it made sense to them at the time. After the Stephansdom began its long drawn out build, Vienna expanded and made Stephansdom the center of Vienna and then later the "center" of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.
Now knowing a bit more about the history of Vienna, the tour we took will make a bit more sense.
Now knowing a bit more about the history of Vienna, the tour we took will make a bit more sense.
As Vienna did not really expand or change until the building of the Stephansdom, if you stand outside the enterance of the Stephansdom and face west you are looking toward an almost 2,000 year difference in the buildings (hence why are walk was 2,000 years in 2 hours.) He showed us where the streets were that used to be the walls of the Roman settlement and also some of the different quarters inside those walls. One particular place he took us to was the section where the Jews had been segregated to. It was not a ghetto like in WWII where they could be locked away at night or had tall walls surrounding them, but the street was named "Juden Strasse" or "Jewish Street" and from there small roads branched out to make the community. We were shown a Synagogue and the most interesting, but also intelligent, thing was that the outside facade was no different than any of the other buildings, besides the name obviously. On the inside, we were told, it does look like a "normal" Synagogue with the dome ceilings and such. This sort of camouflage was a great idea, in my opinion, because then they were not so easily spotted and might stand a greater chance of surviving any sort of hate crime.
We rounded out the day with a visit to the City Library and a coffee shop located on top of it called Ober. I did not get anything but I was told that the hot chocolate "Kakoa" was very good by some of the other AHA students. Tomorrow back to the first district for some well planned time of being lost ( :) ) and then to the Church on Sunday to hear a Mozart Organ piece and a bakery so great the Emperor even went there.
Bis Spater!!
We rounded out the day with a visit to the City Library and a coffee shop located on top of it called Ober. I did not get anything but I was told that the hot chocolate "Kakoa" was very good by some of the other AHA students. Tomorrow back to the first district for some well planned time of being lost ( :) ) and then to the Church on Sunday to hear a Mozart Organ piece and a bakery so great the Emperor even went there.
Bis Spater!!