Global - Technology - Review

Once the centre of an Empire, which under the Hapsburg monarchs, dominated Central Europe, Austria is now a landlocked Alpine state, whose capital Vienna, situated on the River Danube, is famous for its fine churches, opera houses and glittering imperial seats like the Schonbrunn Palace and Hofburg, as well as the celebrated Spanish Riding School. The country’s greatest contribution to European culture is surely its musical heritage, arguably the greatest of any nation’s. Names like Haydn, Schubert and Strauss are world renowned, while Austria’s greatest musician, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, draws thousands of devotees to his hometown of Salzberg to visit the composer’s birthplace and to hear his works at the Salzburg Festival each summer. Austria has also produced great thinkers and writers like Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Considering its Alpine environment, it is not surprising that Winter sports are popular; besides skiing, Austrian athletes excel in ice hockey and bobsleigh. Delicious Austrian specialities like Wiener Schnitzel and apple strudel need no introduction.