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Austria
and Bohemia Vienna, capital city of the Holy Roman Empire, seat of the Holy Roman Emperor, and - most importantly of all for the young man from the Rhineland - capital city of music; a city where the people lived and breathed music. The Vienna in which Beethoven would die a little over 34 years later was to be very different: no longer capital of the Holy Roman Empire, since that Empire - regular victim of Napoleon Bonaparte's military victories - no longer existed; no longer seat of the Holy Roman Emperor, since that grandiose title - again courtesy of the French Emperor - was now simply Emperor of Austria. But still - thanks to Ludwig van Beethoven himself and the legacy of his two great predecessors – the capital city of music. The city that had allowed Mozart to die almost forgotten, that had been unable to give Haydn the funeral he deserved because it was under occupation by the French, made amends with the third musical genius to live within its walls in under half a century. More than 20,000 people lined the streets of Vienna for Beethoven's funeral, more than had ever turned out in the city's history. The Vienna that Beethoven knew bears remarkable similarities to the Vienna of today. For nearly 300 years it had been surrounded by a huge city wall, the Bastion, built to resist the Turkish invaders, which it had successfully done twice, in 1529 and 1683. In front of it lay a wide expanse of grass, known as the Glacis, like a moat surrounding a castle. The Turkish army camped on the Glacis to lay siege to the city. In Beethoven's time, it was the scene of military parades, funfairs, social gatherings. The Bastion was pulled down in the mid-nineteenth century - 30 years after Beethoven's death - and it and the Glacis were replaced by the Ringstrasse, the wide circle of boulevards that surround the city today. I have on my wall a map of Vienna published in 1827, the year of Beethoven's death. Stand in front of it with today's modern map, and the inner city within the Ringstrasse is very similar to the inner city within the Bastion. Streets remain in the same position with the same names. It is possible therefore to walk today where Beethoven walked, to see where he lived, to eat and drink where he ate and drank. And he enjoyed - as we do today - the single legacy of the besieging Turkish army. With them they brought coffee, which gave rise to the unique feature of Vienna, the coffee house. So let me take you on a tour of Vienna - as Beethoven knew it. Click on the Inner Vienna link to see the places inside the city that were important to the composer, and on the Outer Vienna link to see the significant buildings and open spaces outside the main walls.
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© John Suchet |
