Vienna Ring Road

Here, on the loveliest boulevard in the world, you’ll not only encounter many of Vienna’s most famous points of interest – including the Hofburg, the Museum of Fine Arts and Natural History Museum, the State Opera and the Austrian Parliament. Magnificent palaces, vast parks and important monuments also abound along the ‘showcase’ of the former Danube Monarchy. Vienna’s Ring Road is 5.3 kilometres long – long enough to accommodate countless monumental buildings, which were built during the period of Historicism in the 1860s through 1890s. The buildings erected here – from the State Opera to the Museum of Fine Arts – are among Vienna’s most important sights. ‘It is my will…’ – with these words, Emperor Franz Joseph ordered the construction of the Ring Road in 1857. Aristocrats and the bourgeoisie made haste to build palaces that were as ostentatious as possible along the magnificent boulevard. Many of these former private homes can still be marvelled at today (but usually only from outside). The style in which the buildings were constructed – a form of Historicism – went down in history as Ring Road Style, which is characterised by stylistic pluralism imitating a wide range of architectural forms from epochs past.