Besides, there are in Vienna a number of private picture galleries of great importance. The largest is that belonging to Prince Liechtenstein, containing about 800 paintings, and specially rich in important works by Rubens and Van Dyck; the picture gallery of Count Harrach, with over 400 paintings, possessing numerous examples of the later Italian and French schools; that of Count Czernin, with over 340 paintings; and that of Count Schönborn, with 110 pictures. The imperial natural history museum contains a mineralogical, geological and zoological section, as well as a prehistoric and ethnographical collection. Its botanic collection contains the famous Vienna herbarium, while to the university is attached a fine botanical garden. Besides the Hofburg library, there are important libraries belonging to the university and other societies, the corporation and the various monastic orders.
Parks, &c.—The Prater, a vast expanse (2000 acres) of wood and park on the east side of the city, between the Danube and the Danube Canal, is greatly frequented by all classes. The exhibition of 1873 was held in this park, and several of its buildings, including the large rotunda, have been left standing. Other parks are the Hofgarten, the Volksgarten and the Town Park, all adjoining the Ring-Strasse, the Augarten in the Leopoldstadt, the Belvedere Park in the Landstrasse, the Esterhazy Park in Mariahilf, and the Turkenschanz Park in Dobling. Among the most popular resorts are the parks and gardens belonging to the imperial châteaux of Schönbrunn and Laxenburg.
Government and Administration.—Vienna is the residence of the emperor of Austria, the seat of the Austrian ministers, of the Reichsrat and of the Diet of Lower Austria. It is also the seat of the common ministries for the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, of the foreign ambassadors and general consuls and the meeting-place, alternately with Budapest, of the Austro-Hungarian delegations. It contains also the highest judicial, financial, military and administrative official authorities of Austria, and is the see of a Roman Catholic archbishop. Vienna enjoys autonomy for communal affairs, but is under the control of the governor and the Diet of Lower Austria, while the election of the chief burgomaster requires the sanction of the sovereign, advised by the prime minister. The municipal council is composed of 158 members elected for a period of six years. The long struggle between the municipality and the Austrian ministry arising out of the refusal to sanction the election (1895) of Dr Lueger, the anti-Semitic leader and champion, recalls in some respects the Wilkes incident in London. In this instance the ultimate success of the corporation greatly strengthened the Obscurantist and reactionary element throughout Austria.
The cost of the transformation of Vienna, which has been in progress since 1858, cannot be said to have fallen heavily on the population. Great part of the burden has been borne throughout by the “City Extension Fund,” realized from the utilization of the ground formerly occupied by the fortifications and glacis. The subsequent regulation of the former suburbs has to a large extent covered its own expenses through the acquisition by the town of the improved area. The municipal finance has on the whole been sound, and notwithstanding the extra burdens assumed on the incorporation of the suburbs, the equilibrium of the communal budget was maintained up to the fall of the Liberal administration. In spite of shortsighted parsimony in the matter of schools, &c., and increased resources through the allocation to the municipality of a certain percentage of new state and provincial taxation, their anti-Semitic successors have been unable to avoid a deficit, and have been obliged to increase the rates. But the direct damage done in this and other ways would seem to be less than that produced by the mistrust they inspired for a time among the propertied classes, and the consequent paralysing of enterprise. Their violent anti-Magyar attitude has driven away a certain amount of Hungarian custom, and helped to increase the political difficulties of the cis-Leithan government.
Vienna is situated at an altitude of 550 ft. above the level of the sea, and possesses a healthy climate. The mean annual temperature is 48.6° F., and the range between January and July is about 40° F. The climate is rather changeable, and rapid falls of temperature are not uncommon. Violent storms occur in spring and autumn, and the rainfall, including snow, amounts to 25 in. a year. Vienna has one of the best supplies of drinking water of any European capital. The water is brought by an aqueduct direct from the Alps, viz. from the Schneeberg, a distance of nearly 60 m. to the south-west. These magnificent waterworks were opened in 1873, and their sanitary influence was soon felt, in the almost complete, disappearance of typhoid fever, which had numerous victims before.
Great enlargements, by tapping new sources of supply, were made in 1891–93, while since 1902 works have been in progress for bringing a new supply of pure water from the region of the Salza, a distance of nearly 150 m. Another sanitary work of great importance was the improvement carried out in the drainage system, and the regulation of the river Wien. This river, which, at ordinary times, was little more than an ill-smelling brook at one side of an immense bed, was occasionally converted into a formidable and destructive torrent. Now half the bed of the river has been walled over for the metropolitan railway, while the other half has been deepened, and the portion of it within the town has been arched over. A beginning was thus made for a new and magnificent avenue in the neighbourhood of the Ring-Strasse.
Population.—In 1800 the population of the old districts was 231,050; in 1840, 356,870; in 1857, 476,222 (or with suburbs, 587,235); in 1869, 607,514 (with suburbs, 842,951); in 1880, 704,756 (with suburbs, 1,090,119); in 1890, town and suburbs, 1,364,548; and in 1900, 1,662,269, including the garrison of 26,629 men. Owing to the peculiarities of its situation, the population of Vienna is of a very cosmopolitan and heterogeneous character. Its permanent population (some 45.5% are born in the city) is recruited from all parts of Austria, and indeed of the entire monarchy. The German element is, of course, the most numerous, but there are also a great number of Hungarians, Czechs and other Slavs.
Previous to the loss of the Italian provinces, a considerable proportion came from Italy (30,000 in 1859), including artists, members of the learned professions and artisans who left their mark on Viennese art and taste. The Italian colony now numbers about 2500 (chiefly navvies and masons), in addition to some 1400 Austrian subjects of that nationality. At present the largest and most regular contributions to the population of Vienna come from the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, next in importance being those from Lower Austria and Styria. This steady and increasing influx of Czechs is gradually infusing a large proportion of Slav blood in what Bismarck (in 1864) described as the German capital of a Slav empire. Formerly the Czech labourers, artisans and domestic servants who came to Vienna were somewhat ashamed of their mother-tongue, and anxious to conceal that evidence of their origin as speedily as possible. The revival of the nationality agitation has produced a marked change in this respect. The Czech immigrants, attracted to Vienna as to other German towns by the growth of industry, are now too numerous for easy absorption, which is further retarded by their national organization, and the provision of separate institutions, churches, schools (thus far private) and places of resort. The consequence is that they take a pride in accentuating their national characteristics, a circumstance which threatens to develop into a new source of discord. In 1900 the population included 1,386,115 persons of German nationality, 102,974 Czechs and Slovaks, 4346 Poles, 805 Ruthenians, 1329 Slovenes, 271 Serbo-Croatians, and 1368 Italians, all Austrian subjects. To these should be added 133,144 Hungarians, 21,733 natives of Germany (3782 less than in 1890), 2506 natives of Italy, 1703 Russians, 1176 French, 1643 Swiss, &c. Of this heterogeneous population 1,461,891 were Roman Catholics, the Jews coming next in order with 146,926. Protestants of the Augsburg and Helvetic Confessions numbered 54,364; members of the Church of Fngland, 490; Old Catholics, 975; members of the Greek Orthodox Church, 3674; Greek Catholics, 2521; and Mahommedans, 889.
As a general rule, the Viennese are gay, pleasure-loving and genial. The Viennese women are justly celebrated for their beauty and elegance, and dressing as a fine art is cultivated here with almost as great success as in Paris. As a rule, the Viennese are passionately fond of dancing; and the city of Strauss, J. F. K. Lanner (1801–1843) and J. Gung'l (1810–1889) gives name to a “school” of waltz and other dance music. Opera, especially in its lighter form, flourishes, and the actors of Vienna maintain with success a traditional reputation of no mean order. Its chief place in the history of art Vienna owes to its musicians, among whom are counted Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. The Viennese school of painting is of modern origin; but some of its members, for instance, Hans Makart (1840–1884), have acquired a European reputation.
Trade.—Vienna is the most important commercial and industrial centre of Austria. For a long time the Austrian government, by failing to keep the Danube in a proper state for navigation, let slip the opportunity of making the city the great Danubian
