Official Postcrossing card from Austria here! I did a bit on Vienna in April of 2019, which you can check out at https://apostcardforyou.com/2020/01/the-hofburg-of-vienna/… so I’m gonna jump right into looking at each one of these landmarks here! From left to right, top to bottom: 1.) The Riesenrad is a nearly 65m-tall Ferris wheel of the Wurstelprater amusement park. From 1920-1985 (65 years – that seems to be a lucky number), it was the largest Ferris wheel in existence, beaten out by France’s 100m Grande Roue de Paris before 1920 (it was disassembled afterwards) and Japan’s 85m Technostar in 1985. 2.) Next is St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a Roman Catholic church that dates back to the 1100s. You can’t see it here, but it has a really cool zigzag-style tiled roof. 3.) Another church! This one is St. Charles’ Church, built in the 1700s in the Baroque style. Preceding the year it was built, an epidemic had taken place. This church was built to give thanks for its passing. All I can say is, SOMEONE BUILD ANOTHER ONE OF THESE! 4.) This is Schönbrunn Palace, which was built in the late 1600s as a hunting lodge and later became the summer residence of the Habsburg family (the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire until the mid-1700s). 5.) Tired of the old buildings? Donau City, a “city within a city” of Vienna, has buildings dating only back as far as 1996! With its proximity to the Danube River, the area originally couldn’t be developed upon until flood control measures were put into place. 6.) I swear I thought this was a mausoleum, but I couldn’t be further from right: it’s Schönbrunn Zoo, the world’s oldest zoo! This building is known as Kaiserpavilion, and it serves as a restaurant. 7.) The Hofburg! I did a post about this at the beginning of the year: https://apostcardforyou.com/2019/04/classical-music-and-sausages/. 8.) Here is the Vienna State Opera, built in 1869. As one of the leading opera houses in the world, you can imagine how important this place is in the “City of Music”. 9.) Lastly, there is the Votive Church, which was completed a decade after the State Opera. This was commissioned by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian as thanks for saving his brother, Emperor Franz Joseph, from an assassination attempt. All right, I think I’ll stop there… I actually can’t believe I just talked about them all! Thank you so much for sending me this super multi-view card!
