Vienna II

Yesterday, we began by visiting the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History), a palatial fine arts museum on the Ringstraße.

This lavish Neo-Renaissance building was constructed in 1891 to house the extensive collection of the Habsburg family; on the opposite side of Maria-Theresien-Platz, a nearly identical building houses the Naturhistorisches Museum, or Museum of Natural History.

Today, the Kunsthistorisches Museum is known not only for paintings, but also for its large collection of ancient artifacts from Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

The Ancient Egyptian collection contains mummies and sarcophagi, sculptures and carvings, papyrus scrolls, and jewelry made of gold and precious stones, with some artifacts being over four thousand years old.

These Ancient Greek helmets are roughly 2,600 years old, made of bronze, and would have been worn by warriors charging into battle. According to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Greek armies wore very similar helmets to these during the Trojan War.

This fully preserved ancient mosaic is inlaid directly into the floor of the main Greek gallery. It depicts gods, monsters, and other mythological creatures in detail, along with sailing ships and traditional geometric designs.

These marble statues and busts come from Ancient Rome; they depict emperors, senators, wealthy merchants, and other powerful people.

Here, the sculpted head of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. His features, including his distinctive hairstyle, are deliberately modeled after Alexander the Great, who Augustus sought to emulate.

This intricate mechanical clock dates to the sixteenth century and was made for one of the many palaces of the House of Habsburg. During this period, it was common for royals and nobles to amass a "cabinet of curiosities," or Kunstkammer, which could be shown off to guests; the Habsburgs' such collection is now exhibited in the museum.

The museum also exhibits the work of great painters including Raphael, Caravaggio, Vermeer, and Breughel. Here, Breughel's Tower of Babel-- a famous work that greatly influenced the way the Old Testament story would be depicted in later media.

The museum building is an architectural marvel, a glorious piece of excess.

Later, we walked to the eighteenth-century Baroque Karlskirche (Church of St. Charles) for an evening symphonic performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The city of Vienna has a long and illustrious history as the home of some of the greatest classical composers of all time, and it seemed only fitting that we conclude our visit to the City of Music by hearing an iconic musical piece as it was meant to be performed.

Where the beauty of Amsterdam comes from its quaint, narrow streets and canals lined with colorful individual homes, Vienna constantly impresses with its sheer scale, with impossibly grand and ornate buildings lining wide, treelined boulevards.

All throughout Vienna stand reminders of its powerful past, but it is much more than a living museum; it is also a highly efficient metropolis of two million, an ultramodern Teutonic marvel. Here in Vienna, the past and the present don't just coexist; they combine in glorious fashion to create one of the most magnificent on Earth.