During our flight from Kiev to Washington, we stayed over night in Vienna. We arrived in Vienna in the afternoon and after checking into the hotel, we took the metro (U-Bahn) to the center of the city. We did some walking, had some food in a local café and then arrived at Maria Theresian Platz, where our scheduled walking city tour was supposed to start. However, we ran of luck by then, because the rain started pouring pretty hard and our tour was canceled. Even though we still did some sightseeing, we stopped taking pictures due to the weather conditions. That is why there is only a limited amount of pictures from Vienna in this post, mostly from Maria Theresian Platz.
Maria Theresien Platz (Maria Theresa Square) is a square in Vienna city center, mostly known as the location of the twin museums facing each other, the Museum of Natural History (Naturhistorisches Museum) and the Museum of Fine Arts (Kunsthistorisches Museum), which is in the picture above.
This is the Museum of Natural History. Both museums look so similar.
Bordered by two busy roads, the square itself is pedestrian-only and mostly covered with greenery. There is the characteristic statue of the Empress Maria Theresa in the middle of the square. The over 19 meter high and approximately 44 ton heavy monument pictures the empress Maria Theresa as a 6 meter large bronze statue. She greets the people with her right hand and in the left hand she holds a document roll of the Pragmatische Sanktion and a scepter. She is surrounded by, among other things, 4 horseman statues of her generals. The monument is classified as a World Cultural Heritage.
Per my brief research, I found that Maria Theresa was an interesting person. Although Maria Theresa had a difficult start because of being female (she had to fight for her throne in the War of the Austrian Succession), she eventually ruled Austria and many other European regions (including, among others, Bohemia, Hungary, parts of the Balkans, and North Italian regions) for 40 years from 1740 to 1780. She was very religious (Catholic), had 16 children (among them the infamous Marie Antoinette of France), and was quite popular with the people she ruled. Maria Theresa introduced many good reforms in the Empire, especially in finance, education, healthcare, and civil rights. Overall, Maria Theresa has been considered one of the best rulers of the Habsburg dynasty. Backside of Maria Theresa monument.
On the opposite side of the square, just across the street, there is Museum Quarter (MuseumsQuartier), an area packed with many museums. Part of it was originally constructed as the imperial stables. Today these historical buildings are only a small part of the modern styled cultural and event center in Vienna. On site there are also some shops and numerous restaurants and cafes.
In the foreground is one of four Triton and Naiad fountains (constructed around the year 1890) that adorn Maria Theresa Platz. This one is by Hugo Hardtl. In Greek mythology, the Naiads were a type of water nymph (female spirit) who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea respectively, and is herald for his father. He is usually represented as a merman, having the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, “sea-hued”, according to Ovid, “his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells”.
A couple girls were playing beautiful violin music on the square.
A few pics of us next to Maria Theresa statue.
This is the second of 4 Triton and Naiad fountains by artist Anton Schmidgruber.
A view of a couple of Vienna streets.
Some of the trees on this street were blooming chestnuts, which reminded me of Kiev streets.
At Vienna airport the next day.
On the plane home. I really like this cool map showing the flight in real time. 🙂
