Austria

Austria began as a frontier march of the medieval German kingdom and grew under the Babenberg and then, from the late thirteenth century, the Habsburg dynasty, which ruled from Vienna for more than 600 years. The Habsburgs expanded less by conquest than by marriage, assembling a European empire that at its height included Spain and its overseas territories. Two Ottoman sieges of Vienna, in 1529 and 1683, were turned back, the second a turning point in European history.

The Austrian Empire was proclaimed in 1804 and reorganised as the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867 — a sprawling, multi-ethnic state covering much of central Europe. Its heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914, triggering the First World War. Defeat dissolved the empire in 1918, leaving a small, German-speaking republic unsure it could survive alone.

In 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. Large crowds in Vienna turned out to greet it, even as opponents were being arrested, and Hitler — who was Austrian-born — returned to the city in triumph. After the war the country was occupied by the four Allied powers until the State Treaty of 1955 restored full sovereignty on condition of permanent neutrality. Austria long presented itself as Hitler's "first victim," and a fuller public reckoning with the extent of Austrian involvement in Nazi crimes came only from the 1980s. It joined the European Union in 1995 but has stayed outside NATO.

Austria is the heartland of European classical music. Mozart was born in Salzburg; Haydn, Schubert, Bruckner, the Strauss family, and Mahler worked in and around Vienna; the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert and the Vienna Boys' Choir carry the tradition abroad. Turn-of-the-century Vienna was also the world of Klimt and Schiele, of Freud, and of a restless intellectual life.

The coffeehouse is a social institution in its own right, listed by UNESCO as intangible heritage — a place to sit for hours over a single Melange with a newspaper. Formality lingers in the use of titles and courtesies, and Catholic tradition remains strong, especially in the west, alongside a well-known streak of melancholy self-irony.

In the mountains, folk culture is very much alive: dirndl and lederhosen worn without irony at festivals, brass bands, village processions, and the masked Krampus runs of early December. Skiing and mountaineering are near-universal pastimes rather than niche pursuits.

About a fifth of Austrians live in Greater Vienna, a city regularly rated among the most liveable in the world, with cheap and extensive public transport, generous social housing, and a dense cultural calendar. The other cities — Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck — are small and walkable, and much of the population lives in villages and market towns in the alpine valleys.

The economy combines industry, tourism (summer and winter), and a large service sector. Working hours are moderate, holidays generous, and shops close early and stay shut on Sundays. Life in the west is organised around the ski season and the summer hiking season; in the east, around the wine harvest and the city calendar.

Environmental awareness is high — recycling is meticulous, renewable hydroelectric power is abundant, and there is broad support for keeping the Alps buildable-on only within limits.

Austrian cooking is hearty and Central European. The best-known dish is Wiener Schnitzel, a thin veal cutlet breaded and fried; Tafelspitz, boiled beef with horseradish, was the Emperor Franz Joseph's favourite. Goulash, dumplings (Knödel), Käsespätzle, and roast pork with sauerkraut fill out the repertoire.

Pastry is treated as a serious craft. Sachertorte, apple strudel, Kaiserschmarrn (a shredded, caramelised pancake), Linzer torte, and Topfenstrudel are eaten in the coffeehouse with a Melange or a small black Brauner. Bread and bakery culture is strong throughout the day.

Wine comes from the east — crisp Grüner Veltliner and red Blaufränkisch from the Wachau and Burgenland — and is drunk young as cloudy Sturm in autumn at the Heuriger taverns, where growers serve their own vintage with cold platters. Beer is more the drink of the western provinces.

Vienna holds the imperial set pieces: the Schönbrunn and Hofburg palaces, St. Stephen's Cathedral, the grand Ringstrasse boulevard, the Belvedere with Klimt's "The Kiss," the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and the coffeehouses and the Prater funfair. Salzburg, ringed by mountains, has a UNESCO old town beneath a hilltop fortress, Mozart's birthplace, and the sites used in "The Sound of Music."

The Salzkammergut lake district, with the much-photographed village of Hallstatt and its prehistoric salt mine, lies between the two. Innsbruck, hemmed in by the Nordkette range, is the capital of the Tyrol and a twice Winter Olympic host, and the surrounding valleys hold the big ski resorts — St. Anton, Kitzbühel, Sölden, Ischgl.

For landscape, the Grossglockner High Alpine Road climbs past glaciers in Hohe Tauern National Park, and the Wachau stretch of the Danube winds between vineyard terraces and the abbey of Melk. Bregenz, on Lake Constance in the far west, is known for opera staged on a floating lakeside stage.