0614, 2308, 2357, 3219 AUSTRIA (Salzburg) - Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg (UNESCO WHS)

3219 Salzburg - View to the Old Town from Mönchsberg (507m)

As many other cities from Central Europe, Salzburg (Salt Fortress), located on the banks of the Salzach River, at the northern boundary of the Alps, was founded as a Celtic settlement, later developed by the Romans, under the name Juvavum. By the late 7th century it had become a "near ruin", but it began to rebirth in the 8th-century primarily due to trade on the river. Independence from Bavaria was secured in the late 14th century and lasted five centuries, till in the 19th century, when the city was annexed by the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary).

2308 Salzburg - The Old Town with the fortress

Anyway, Salzburg has emerged intact from history, a Baroque town which owes much of its appearance to the architects Vincenzo Scamozzi and Santino Solari. Being considered the point where the Italian and German cultures met, influencing each other,  the Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg become an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. Salzburg’s most famous son was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose name is closely associated with the city. The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920, which takes place each summer.

0614 Salzburg: 1. Friedhof zu St. Peter (St. Peter's Cemetery);
2. Hofstallgasse (Hofstall Alley); 3. Mozartplatz (Mozart Square);
4. Residenzbrunnen; 5. Pferdeschwemme (Horse Well);
6. Getreidegasse (Grain Lane); 7. Mozarts Geburtshaus
(Mozart's Birthplace); 8. Makartsteg (Makart Bridge);
9. Mirabellgarten (Mirabel Gardens); 10. Dom (Cathedral).

Friedhof zu St. Peter (St. Peter's Cemetery) - the oldest cemetery in the city. Its origins date back to about 700, when was established St. Peter's Abbey, and was closed down in 1878. Into the rock of the Festungsberg were carved catacombs, that may date from the Early Christian days. Hofstallgasse (Hofstall Alley) - a street in Old Town, in the festival area, which connects the Max Reinhardt Square with the Herbert von Karajan Platz. Since the Mozart year 2006, it has a "golden" pavement. Mozartplatz (Mozart Square) - a square placed in the heart of the Old Town, known for the Mozart memorial by Ludwig Schwanthaler, opened in 1842.

2357 Salzburg - Mozart's birthplace

Residenzbrunnen - a grand baroque fountain, placed in the midle of the Residenzplatz (Residenz Square) and executed by Tomasso di Garona between 1656 to 1661. It's made of marble, and it's considered the largest baroque fountain of Middle Europe. Pferdeschwemme (Horse Well) - a well designed and built in 1693 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in the course of building the facade for the royal stables. The "Horse Tamer" by Michael Bernhard Mandl once stood in an oval basin axial to the portal of the royal stables. Getreidegasse (Grain Lane) - a busy shopping street in Old Town. The house at no. 9 is the place where Mozart was born and where he lived until the age of 17.

2997 AUSTRIA (Vorarlberg) - The traditional clothes in Bregenzerwald

Located in Western Austria, the Bregenzerwald (Bregenz Forest) overlaps, but is not conterminous with, the  Bregenz Forest Mountains which are a range of the Northern Limestone Alps. The people from the region are regarded as self-assured, almost headstrong, and this results from their history. The political structure of Vorarlberg - which was given extensive rights in 1380 by the Habsburg monarchy - provided the basis for a sovereign "farmers' republic" with its own constitution and an independent jurisdiction.

ALBANIA / AUSTRIA / BELGIUM / BULGARIA / CROATIA / GERMANY / ITALY / ROMANIA / SLOVAKIA / SLOVENIA / SPAIN / UKRAINE - Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe (UNESCO WHS)

This transboundary property stretches over 12 European countries. Since the end of the last Ice Age, European Beech spread from a few isolated refuge areas in the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Mediterranean and Pyrenees over a short period of a few thousand years in a process that is still ongoing. The successful expansion across a whole continent is related to the tree's adaptability and tolerance of different climatic, geographical and physical conditions.

2832 AUSTRIA - "542 Garten Im Regentropfen - Theater - Maul - Cappana 140" by Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Although Friedensreich Hundertwasser (about which I wrote a little here) is more widely known for his architectural works, he first achieved notoriety for his paintings. He used bright colours and organic forms, rejecting the straight lines. Painted in Venice, Lido - Giudecca - Anguillara, in summer-autumn 1962, 542 Garten Im Regentropfen - Theater - Maul - Cappana 140 (Garden in the Raindrop - Theatre - Mouth - Cabin 140) is a watercolour on wrapping paper, primed with chalk and PV (390 mm x 550 mm).

2485 GERMANY / SWITZERLAND / AUSTRIA - The map of Lake Constance

Lake Constance (German: Bodensee) is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, in  Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee (Upper Lake), the Untersee (Lower Lake), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine (Seerhein). The Rhine flows into it from the south, with its original course forming the Austro-Swiss frontier. Located at an altitude of 395m, it is 63km long, and at its widest point, nearly 14km.  The greatest depth is 252m.

2451 AUSTRIA (Upper Austria) - The Town Square of Steyr in interwar period

2451 The Town Square of Steyr in interwar period

Situated in the Traunviertel region, with the two rivers Steyr and Enns flowing through it and meeting near the town centre beneath Lamberg Castle and St Michael's Church, Steyr is an ancient town which celebrated the anniversary of 1,000 years in 1980. In 11th and 12th centuries the Otakar dynasty controlled the iron mining at Erzberg and made their residence at Steyr a centre of medieval courtly culture and Middle High German poetry.

1990 AUSTRIA (Lower Austria) - The life size reproduction of Venus von Willendorf

1990 The life size reproduction
of Venus von Willendorf

The Venus of Willendorf, now known in academia as the Woman of Willendorf, is a 11.1cm high statuette of a female figure estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE (in Old Stone Age). It was found in 1908 during excavations conducted by archaeologists Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier and Josef Bayer at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a hamlet which now is part of Aggsbach, near the town of Krems.

1927, 1928 UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Office at Vienna

1927 United Nations - Vienna International Centre

The United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV) is one of the four major UN office sites where several different UN agencies have a joint presence. The office complex is located in Vienna, the capital of Austria, and is part of the Vienna International Centre (VIC), a cluster of several major international organizations. The UNOV was established on 1 January 1980, and was the third such office established (after New York and Geneva,  and before Nairobi).

1928 United Nations - United Nations Postal Administration Flags
of the United Nations, view from the Memorial Plaza, Vienna

In 1966, the Government of Austria made an offer to the UN to construct in Vienna an international centre, and a year later, together with the city of Vienna, in a joint decision, designated an area on the left bank of the Danube as the site of the centre. The international competition for the design of the buildings, organized in 1968, attracted the interest of architects worldwide, the winner being the Austrian architect Johann Staber.

1589 AUSTRIA (Lower Austria) - Mayerling

Mayerling is a small village (pop: 200) situated on the Schwechat River, in the Wienerwald (Vienna woods), at 24km southwest of Vienna. In 1886 Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, acquired the manor and transformed it into a hunting lodge. It was in this hunting lodge that, on January 30, 1889, he was found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, apparently as a result of suicide. Exactly what happened is clouded in mystery. After the deaths of the two, the Emperor Franz Joseph turned the building into a convent which was settled by nuns of the Discalced Carmelite Order. Today the lodge is a museum.

1434 AUSTRIA (Styria) - Riegersburg Castle

1434 Riegersburg Castle

Located on a dormant volcano above the town of Riegersburg, at an height of 450m, Riegersburg Castle has a long history, which begins in the year 1122. During the centuries the castle had a lot of owners, but only few of them played an important role. The most important owner was the baroness Katharina Elisabeth von Wechsler, married Galler and known as Gallerin, who finished the castle between 1637 and 1653, making it one of the strongest in the country. Surrounded by 2 miles of walls with 5 gates, it contains 108 rooms.

1029 AUSTRIA (Lower Austria) - Heiligenkreuz Abbey (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Located in the southern part of the Vienna woods, at about 13 km north-west of Baden, Stift Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross Abbey) is the oldest continuously occupied Cistercian monastery in the world. It was founded in 1133 by Margrave St. Leopold III of Austria, at the request of his son Otto, and in 1188 Leopold V presented the abbey with a relic of the True Cross, a present from Baldwin IV, King of Jerusalem. This relic still can be seen, and since 1983 is exhibited in the chapel of the Holy Cross. Actually Heiligenkreuz was richly endowed by the founder's family, the Babenberg dynasty, and was active in the foundation of many daughter-houses.

0971 AUSTRIA (Salzburg) - The hotel on the peak Schafberg

0971 The hotel on the peak Schafberg

Situated within the Salzkammergut mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps, the Schafberg (1783m) rises at the shore of the lake Wolfgang (538m above sea level). In the town of Sankt Wolfgang there is a rack railway, with a length of 5.85 km, built between 1892 and 1893, which ascends from 1,365m to 1,730m altitude (only from May to October). The peak offers a panoramic view of the Salzkammergut mountains and lakes and is also the site of a hotel (Schafbergspitze), established in 1862 (in the postcard), as the first mountain hotel in Austria.

0348, 0871 SWITZERLAND / AUSTRIA - Prehistoric pile dwellings from the Alps (UNESCO WHS)

0348 SWITZERLAND - Reconstruction of a prehistoric pile dwelling
from Bronze Age at Laténium, Hauterive.

Among the sites included in 2011 by UNESCO in its list of World Heritage Sites is one called Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps, which contains, as say its name, pile-dwelling settlements in and around the Alps, built on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. So far have been identified 937 such sites, of which UNESCO has chosen 111, located in Austria (5), France (11), Germany (18), Italy (19), Slovenia (2), and Switzerland (56).

0871 AUSTRIA - Computer animation of some prehistoric pile dwellings,
which are nowadays on the bottom of the Keutschacher See, Carinthia.

These settlements were built between 5,000 and 500 BC, i.e. during Neolithic and Bronze Age, a period about which we know little, but for which clarification would be an important step in finding our origins as Europeans. For now it is clear that at the end of the Neolithic has occurred a profound transformation, due to the penetration in Europe of a Proto-Indo-European populations wave, named by Marija Gimbutas Kurgan Culture. Equally clear is that these populations, more warlike and technologically superior to the ones found in Europe, were imposed and caused a cultural leap.

0009, 0496 AUSTRIA (Vienna) - Historic Centre of Vienna (UNESCO WHS)

Founded by the Celts 2,500 years ago, on the Danube river, Vienna was, in turn, municipium (Vindobona) and headquarters of the Legion X Gemina under Romans, capital of the Babenberg dynasty, of the Habsburg dynasty and of the Austrian Empire (became Austria-Hungary in 1867), because after WWI to become the capital of the new republic Österreich (with a break between 1938 and 1945, when Austria was occupied by the Germans). In 2001, Historic Centre of Vienna was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Currently Vienna has about 1.7 million inhabitants and is considered, according to Economist Intelligence Unit, the city first (in a tie with Vancouver, Canada) for quality of life, but also for the culture of innovation. All EIU rated it, in 2011, as the second best city in which to live. Impressive, what to say. The postcard 0009 contains six buildings:

0304, 0478 AUSTRIA (Lower Austria) - Wachau Cultural Landscape - Melk Abbey (UNESCO WHS)

0304 Melk Abbey seen from Danube

In 976, Leopold I, the first Margrave of the area of present-day southwestern Lower Austria from the House of Babenberg, made the castle in Melk (situated on an isolated rock commanding the Danube, adjoining the Wachau valley) his residence. In 1089, Leopold II gave the castle to Benedictine monks from Lambach Abbey, who founded Stift Melk (Melk Abbey). Since then, monks have lived and worked there without interruption following the rule of Saint Benedict, managing to survive to the numerous threats arising in the about 1000 years, the main being the reign of Joseph II (who dissolved many Austrian abbeys), the Napoleonic Wars, and the Nazi Anschluss.

0478 Melk Abbey

In the 12th century was founded a monastic school, the Stiftsgymnasium Melk, the monastery becoming quickly renowned for its manuscripts collection, but also for its scriptorium, a major site for the production of manuscripts. In the 15th century, the abbey, which had close ties with the Humanists at the University of Vienna, was the starting point of one of the most important medieval monastic reforms, the Melk Reform. Also it was a place of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Coloman and to its great relic of the Holy Cross.

0319 AUSTRIA (Vienna) - Saint Stephen's Cathedral and Saint Charles's Church - parts of Historic Centre of Vienna (UNESCO WHS)

0319 Saint Stephen's Cathedral and Saint Charles's Church

Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna (Stephansdom - in image, the one in gothic style) appears also in a multiview postcard received by me last year and posted here. As I said, it is part of the Historic Centre of Vienna, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. Founded in 1137, the partially constructed Romanesque church was solemnly dedicated in 1147 to St. Stephen in the presence of Conrad III of Germany, Bishop Otto of Freising, and other German nobles who were about to embark on the Second Crusade, which otherwise will prove to be a failure.

0115 AUSTRIA (Styria) - A friendly alien

Kunsthaus Graz, or Graz Art Museum, was completed in 2003 (the year when Graz held the prestigious title of a Cultural Capital of Europe), and has since become an architectural landmark for the city, even if its innovative form differs radically from the surrounding baroque roof landscape. Its creators, the london-based architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, prominent figures of the blob architecture movement, have called the building "Friendly Alien", a very appropriate name for this organic-looking structure, with amoeba or blister-shaped, which almost seems alive when the 930 fluorescent rings, embedded in the 900 m2 outer acrylic glass skin, start to change their illumination level following the schemes coordinated by a central computer. Spectacular, no doubt.

0080 AUSTRIA (Vienna) - Ball der offiziere 2012

In 1919, under circumstances not very happy for Austria, a group of graduates from the Theresianische Militärakademie (Theresian Military Academy), establish the Asociation Alt-Neustadt (the Old Newstadt). Theresian Military Academy is the oldest military academy in the world and was founded in 1751 by Maria Theresa of Austria. Academy headquarters is in castle of Wiener Neustadt, where he was throughout whole its history except for two short intervals.