Vienna, Austria Evening Tour - 4K 60fps - with Captions
Welcome to Vienna, Austria! As always, I want to reach as many people as possible, and you can help me with that. Please share this video with a friend and leave a LIKE on this video. Thank you! This evening tour will take you through the top six Christmas markets in Vienna. You can skip forward to any market by using the video chapters.
Thanks for watching! Merry Christmas and enjoy the walk! One of Vienna's most important Christmas markets is located in Rathausplatz, a large square in the city center. Wooden stalls and kiosks sell artisan craft products like children's toys and tree decorations. The most important building in the square is the city hall, built between 1872 and 1883.
The ground floor of the city hall is open for visitors and children can join workshops to make cakes and candles. The city hall was built using some 30 million bricks. For a short time, between 1892-1894, the Vienna City Hall was the world's tallest building, until it was eclipsed by Milwaukee City Hall.
The city hall has a total space of about 113,000 m2 and 2,987 rooms. There are over 150 stalls and kiosks at the Rathausplatz Christmas market. This Christmas market is also famed for the large ice rink set up each year. Called Vienna Ice World, it is one of the biggest open-air artificial ice rinks in the world.
The ice rink covers a space of 9,500 m². The ice rink is open from 10am to 10pm every day. Roast chestnuts are a traditional Christmas market food and delicious on a cold winter day. The Rathausplatz Wiener Christkindlmarkt attracts around 3 million visitors a year.
Around half a million are foreign tourists. The Rathausplatz market is also famed for its fabulous Christmas decorations and illuminations. The stunning decorations change each year, always with novel and delightful additions. The city hall also hosts international choirs singing carols. There is free entrance to listen to the concerts on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Stands sell typical cakes like apple strudel, perfect eaten hot! This amazing stalls sells hundreds of varieties of hand painted baubles.
The colorful carousel has become an iconic feature of the Rathausplatz Christmas market. On the opposite side of the square from the city hall is the monumental Burgtheater. It is the most important German-language theater and one of the most important theatres in the world.
The theater first opened in 1741 in a different location. It moved to this location in 1888, housed in a spectacular neo-classical building. In the interior are staircases decorated with paintings by Gustav Klimt. Horse-drawn carriages are an iconic sight in Vienna and take visitors on tours around the city.
Ahead is the Schottenkirche, founded in the 12th century by Irish and Scottish monks. Freyung square hosts another of Vienna's most popular Christmas markets. This market is smaller than the one in Rathausplatz and has a cosier, more traditional feel. Decorative light displays illuminate the historic buildings around the square. Vienna's markets are famed for their local drinks including glühwein (mulled wine) and feuerzangenbowle, a typical punch. Freyung market is one of the oldest Christmas markets in Vienna.
It has been held in this location since the 17th century. This market sells lots of traditional crafts that make for attractive stocking fillers! You can also find lots of traditional, locally-made food products like meat and cheese. Vienna's horse-drawn carriages are known as fiakers, a word deriving from French. In the late 19th century there was a boom in the number of carriages around the city, with as many as 1000 on the streets. Now, they are very popular with tourists and visitors looking for a characterful and cozy way to see the city. Vienna's residents typically make 4.6 million visits to the city's Christmas markets each year.
That's an impressive amount considering only 1.8 million people live in Vienna! Raclette is a typical product found in Vienna's Christmas markets and is essentially mouthwatering melted cheese. Other typical food products include kartoffelpuffer (potato pancake) and nussknacker, a cupcake with a swirl of cream on top. The Freyung market often has live Advent music and arts and crafts demonstrations at weekends. Freyung square is considered to be one of the most beautiful in Vienna and it truly sparkles at Christmas. Just wandering around Vienna's streets is a pleasure during the festive season when spectacular decorations and lights are put up.
We are in the heart of Vienna's luxury shopping district with stores like Prada and Chanel. Vienna is characterized by wide streets lined with elegant 17th, 18th and 19th-century buildings. Many of the buildings lining this street are built in an ornate Baroque style fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Demel is a renowned pastry shop and cafè founded in 1888. Inside in a graceful 19th-century salon where customers can taste exquisite cream cakes and strudels. This circular plaza is surrounded by some of Vienna's most attractive buildings. On the right is Palais Herberstein built in the 1890s. Sweet and savory pretzels are another local food typically found in Vienna's Christmas markets. This is one of Vienna's smaller Christmas markets, which number 14 in total.
The most spectacular building on the plaza is the entrance to the Hofburg palace complex, the former home of the Habsburgs. The opulent building was begun in the early 1700s. It now houses the prestigious Spanish Riding School. Michaelerplatz acts as a 'parking lot' for Vienna's horse-drawn carriages and a good place to start a tour of the city. The late Romanesque, early Gothic church of Michaelerkirche is one of the oldest in the city. Some parts date back to the 13th century and the bell has been rung for over 500 years.
Loos house is another important building on the square, built in 1912 and considered an iconic example of Viennese modernism. If you want to visit Demel for a cake, be prepared to wait in a long queue! Around 30,000 liters of hot drinks are served at Vienna's Christmas stands every day! St Peter's Catholic church dates from the 18th century and puts on daily organ recitals. This 17th-century memorial column was built to commemorate victims of the plague. On average, visitors spend 22 euros per person at Vienna's Christmas markets.
That works out at millions of euros per year! Stephansplatz is dominated by the striking medieval St Stephen's Cathedral. The cathedral is the most important religious building in Vienna and a symbol of the city. The current structure was built in Romanesque and Gothic style and stands on the ruins of two previous churches.
One of its most distinctive features is its multi-colored tile roof. The building is 107 meters long and the spire is 136.44 meters tall. The cathedral has been witness to some of the most significant moments in Hapsburg and Austrian history. At the base of the ornate cathedral is another of Vienna's many Christmas markets. The stylish stands are decorated with lights that recall the architecture of the cathedral behind. Located right in the heart of the historic city, this is one of the most visited markets and is a little more high end.
Smaller markets like these are a more recent addition to Vienna's Christmas celebrations. Smaller markets popped up around the 1990s to coincide with a boom in tourism. Before that, there were only a couple of big markets like that at Rathausplatz. The roof of the cathedral is covered by 230,000 glazed tiles. The fiakers offer several different routes, including a short tour of of the old town as well as specially requested trips. Special trips include an hour's ride with a bottle of champagne and a wedding carriage ride.
There is even a horse and carriage restaurant. The cathedral is a magnificent amalgamation of styles, from Romanesque to late Gothic. It was finally finished in 1578. This entrance is known as the Giant's door. The Romanesque towers above stand at 65 meters tall.
This entrance is dubbed the Giant's door possibly referring to the thighbone of a mammoth that hung over it for decades. The main body of the church contains 18 altars with yet more in side chapels. The church houses a pulpit considered to be a masterpiece of Gothic sculpture.
The church is home to several important tombs and there are the remains of over 11,000 persons in the catacombs. Ahead is another of Vienna's architectural treasures, dating from the 19th century. On the right is a striking modern building that fits surprisingly well with the historic architecture. The first ever Christmas markets are thought to originate in Vienna in 1296. In 1296, Duke Albrecht I ruled that residents could hold 14 day fairs during the month of December.
The 13th century markets weren't actually related to Christmas or religious themed, but they clearly began a trend. Winter markets also sprung up in Germany in the 14th century. The Christmas market in Nuremberg, Germany, can be traced back to 1628. Christmas markets began to spread across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Christmas markets haven't changed all that much. In the past they also sold baked goods and hand-made gifts. Christmas markets declined in the 19th century as they had to compete with department stores selling cheaper, mass produced Christmas products.
In Germany, Christmas markets were actually revived by the Nazi regime in the 1930s. The Vienna State Opera house is one of the most magnificent buildings in the city. The building was designed in neo-Renaissance style and construction finished in 1869.
After the Nazis moved the Berlin market back to the city center, it attracted 1.5 million visitors in 1934 and two million two years later. The Nazis also imposed rules on the goods sold at markets, which could only be related to the festivities. The opera house is one of the most important in the world and seats 1709 people. Under the Nazis, Christmas markets could only sell products like tree decorations, gingerbread and German foods like bratwurst. Christmas markets declined again during World War II but were quickly revived after the conflict.
Christmas markets first began to become extremely popular attractions in the 60s and 70s. From here you can see the Karlskirche, an 18th-century Habsburg domed cathedral. This market has an emphasis on quality arts and crafts products. When you buy glühwein, you usually pay a deposit for a mug which you can return or keep as a souvenir.
The Art Advent market has its own specially designed mug that changes each year. This market also puts particular emphasis on eco-friendly and sustainable products. The Karlskirche is considered to be one of the most important Baroque buildings in Vienna.
The two columns display scenes from the life of Saint Charles Borromeo in a spiral relief. The church features a monumental temple front entrance. There are plenty of fun activities for children at the Art Advent market like this Express Rail Trolley. The pedal-powered rail installation includes switches and a platform.
And, of course, there's Santa! This is known as the Carousel of Lost Property. It runs without electricity and is driven entirely by muscle power. To make it turn, you have to push the pedals! If you add up all the stalls and stands at Vienna's markets, it comes to over 800!
2022-12-22 19:16
