Austria - Secrets And Pleasures Of The Vienna Woods (41/151)

Austria - Secrets And Pleasures Of The Vienna Woods (41/151)

The Vienna Woods are a real eye-opener for travelers, who can find the joys of nature and culture in close proximity here. Visitors to the huge natural expanse are in good company, for these woods once attracted such luminaries as Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss or Arnold Schönberg, who were all regular guests, along with many other noblemen, poets, composers and painters. Anyone who could afford to do so spent their summers beyond the gates of Vienna. They took the waters and wrote their music, gleaned their inspiration from the forest and healed their ailments in the baths. Hardly a coincidence that this harmonious environment of woods, water and wine gave rise to eternal beauty like Schubert's song cycles "Die schöne Müllerin" and "Am Brunnen vor dem Tore", Beethoven's "Mödlinger Dances" and "Ode to Joy", as well as some of Mozart's most joyous compositions. Sigmund Freud brooded on the nature of man atop its hills, painter Egon Schiele explored the nature of woman with his beautiful young models here. Famous architects built mansions and churches as well as clinics and sanatoriums - where Franz Kafka spent his last days, in a private sanatorium.