Page 566 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

564  GERM AN Y , A USTRIA , AND SWITZERLAND

Vienna: Farther Afield the Belvedere consists of two
palaces linked by a formal
For a city of 1.6 million inhabitants, Vienna is surprisingly garden laid out in the French
compact. Nonetheless, some of the most interesting sights style by Dominique Girard. The
are away from the city center. At Belvedere, the palace and huge garden is sited on three
gardens of Prince Eugene impress with their scale and levels, linked by two elaborate
cascading waterfalls. Different
grandeur. Farther away at Schönbrunn sprawls the immense areas of the garden are meant
palace and gardens so loved by Empress Maria Theresa. There to convey a complicated series
are also many parks and gardens around the city, the largest of Classical allusions: the lower
and most interesting of which is the Prater. A former hunting part of the garden represents
ground of the Habsburgs, it is now open to the public for the domain of the Four
numerous leisure activities. Elements, the center is
Parnassus, and the upper
section is Olympus.
famous landmarks. There Standing at the highest point
is also a planetarium, an of the garden, the Upper
exhibition center, and a Belvedere has a more elaborate
trotting stadium nearby. facade than the Lower
The southern side Belvedere, with lavish
of the Prater contains stone ornamentation,
extensive woodland – statues, and
interlaced with cycle balustrades. The
paths and a municipal domed copper roofs
golf course. There is also of the end pavilions
the Liliputbahn miniature were designed to
The colorful Volksprater Funfair, Prater railway that runs for resemble Turkish
almost 4 km (2 miles) tents – an
e Prater from March until October. allusion to Prince
Prater.  Praterstern. v 0, 5. Park: Eugene’s many
Open daily. Ferris Wheel: Open daily. victories over the
& ∑ prater.wien.info r Belvedere Turks. In fact, the
whole palace
Upper Belvedere: Prinz-Eugen-Strasse
Originally an imperial hunting 27. Tel 01-795 560. @ 13A, 69A. was intended to
ground, this huge area of woods  Quartier Belvedere. v 0, 18, D. be a symbolic Sphinx from Upper
and meadows between the Open 10am–6pm daily. & 7 8 reflection of the Belvedere garden
Danube and the Danube Canal Lower Belvedere: Rennweg 6. prince’s power
was opened to the public by Tel 01-795 570. v 71, D. Open and glory, and was appropriate
Joseph II in 1766. The central 10am–6pm daily. & 7 8 Gardens: to the grand festive occasions
avenue, or Hauptallee, stretches Open daily. 7 ∑ belvedere.at for which it was originally used.
for 5 km (3 miles) through the The many impressive interiors
center of the Prater, and was for The Belvedere was built by include the Sala Terrena, with
a long time the preserve of the Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt four Herculean figures
nobility and their footmen. as the summer residence of supporting the ceiling, and a
During the 19th century, the Prince Eugene of Savoy, the grand, sweeping staircase, the
northern end of the Prater brilliant military commander ornately decorated chapel, and
became a massive funfair, whose strategies helped the opulent Marble Hall.
dominated by a giant ferris vanquish the Turks in 1683. The building also houses
wheel, one of Vienna’s most Situated on a gently sloping hill, the collections of 19th- and

Imposing Baroque facade of Prince Eugene’s Upper Belvedere palace
For hotels and restaurants see p574 and p575

564-565_EW_Europe.indd 564 14/07/16 10:18 am