Vienna — Capital of Austria

Vienna (population 1.9 million) is the capital and largest city of Austria, and for six centuries was the seat of the Habsburg dynasty — rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the great powers of Europe. At its peak in the early 20th century the Habsburg Empire encompassed 50 million people across 13 modern nations.

Vienna was twice besieged by the Ottoman Empire — in 1529 and 1683 — and each time withstood the siege, with the 1683 Battle of Vienna (where a Polish-led relief force broke the Ottoman encirclement) regarded as a turning point in European history. The city's baroque grandeur — the Schönbrunn Palace, the Belvedere, the Hofburg — reflects the power of the Habsburgs at their height.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Vienna was one of the most intellectually and artistically fertile cities in the world: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Mahler all worked here; Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis here; Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele defined the Vienna Secession art movement; and Adolf Hitler, failed artist and future dictator, spent his formative years here. The Vienna Philharmonic, founded in 1842, is considered one of the world's great orchestras. The Kunsthistorisches Museum houses one of the world's greatest collections of Old Master paintings. Vienna consistently ranks as the world's most liveable city.