Page 555 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

GERM AN Y , A USTRIA , AND SWITZERLAND  553

AUSTRIA

Austria has existed as a country for less than 100 years but, despite inauspicious
beginnings, has thrived thanks to its position at the heart of Europe. Visitors are
attracted by the glories of its Imperial Habsburg past, especially in the capital,
Vienna. Austria also has a strong musical tradition and great natural beauty,
especially in the Alps and the valley of the Danube.

Present-day Austria emerged in 1919, History
when the lands of its former empire were In the 1st millennium BC, settlements in
granted independence, as a curiously the region of present-day Austria prospered
shaped, landlocked country. It is bordered from mining iron and salt. One settlement,
by Switzerland and Germany to the west Hallstatt, has given its name to an important
and north. Along the rest of its border lie Iron Age culture that spread across Europe.
the former lands of the old Habsburg It was iron that first drew the Romans to
Empire, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, occupy the region, where they established
Hungary, Slovenia, and the South Tyrol. the provinces of Rhaetia, Noricum, and
The regions of the west, the Vorarlberg Pannonia, making the Danube the frontier
and the Tyrol, are mountainous, dominated of their empire. When the Romans
by the eastern Alps. This is where you will withdrew, the region was settled by
find the most familiar images of Austria: Germanic tribes, such as the Alemanni
well-appointed skiing resorts, snow-capped and the Bavarians, and Slavs, but it was the
peaks, and beautiful valleys cloaked in forest. German-speaking peoples who prevailed.
The Alps are not the traditional heart of The geographical kernel of Austria
Austria – this lies in the regions of Upper (Österreich) was the Ostmark (eastern
and Lower Austria in the northeast, where march or border county) established
the Danube (Donau) flows eastwards across by Charlemagne in the 9th century to
the country for 360 km (225 miles). Vienna protect the frontier of his empire. In the
stands at a point just beyond where the 10th century, the Babenbergs acquired
great river emerges from the mountains the county, which was elevated to a
to flow into the Hungarian plain. The east dukedom in 1156. Their dynasty died out
of the country is more populous, with in the 13th century and their lands were
more agriculture and industry. fought over until they came under the

Ruined castle of Aggstein overlooking the Danube in the Wachau region
The magnificent interior of the Vienna State Opera House

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