VIENNA, the capital of the Austrian empire, and the largest city in the whole of Germany, is seated on the right bank of the Danube, at the spot where that magnificent river, no longer rolling in one rapid and impetuous mass, spreads out its waters into several smaller streams, slow and majestic in their windings, and forming, by their many channels, a number of islands, of various sizes. The Germans call it Wien,-an appellation derived from a little river of that name, a tributary to the great Danube, into which it pours its diminutive stream, after passing through the city itself; the Hungarians and the Turks style it Betsch, and the Poles, Wieden

ITS EARLY HISTORY.

IN the time of the Romans, Vienna was long a military station, under the name of Castra Flaviana, and afterwards of Vindobona; and it was here that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius died, in the second century. Upon the decline of the empire, it fell successively into the hands of the Goths and Huns; and in 791 was, by Charlemagne, attached to his dominions. The origin of the modern town is commonly ascribed to Henry the First, Duke of Austria, who is said to have founded it in 1142; and towards the close of the thirteenth century, it passed, together with the duchy, into the possession of the illustrious house of Hapsburg, whose descendants still retain it, with their imperial throne of Austria.

In 1477, the city was unsuccessfully besieged by the Hungarians, but captured in 1484, by their king Matthias, who resided in it till his death, after which, it was restored to Austria. The next enemies who assaulted it were the Turks; whose power had increased to a most alarming degree, since their taking of Constantinople in 1453, and whose ambitious and enterprising Sultans were now designing to carry their victorious arms into the very heart of Christian Europe.

In 1529, Solyman the Magnificent encamped under the walls of Vienna, and destroyed its suburbs; but after a fruitless siege of thirty days, the advance of winter, and the dread of approaching succours, compelled him to retreat. In 1619, it was twice blockaded by the Bohemian Protestants, who, roused to rebellion by the active persecutions of their Catholic sovereign, the Archduke Ferdinand, and his equally zealous nobles, invaded Austria, and imprisoned their intolerant ruler within the walls of his own capital. But the most memorable attack that it ever sustained, is that of the Turks in 1683; and of this we shall speak more at large.

SIEGE BY THE TURKS IN 1683, AND

DELIVERANCE BY THE POLES.

TOWARDS the close of the seventeenth century, the Archduke Leopold, who was also Emperor of Germany, and King of Hungary, had driven his Hungarian subjects to revolt by repeated oppressions and infringements on their national liberties, of which, not the least was the cruel persecution to which he had subjected those among them who were Protestants, in his earnest desire to extirpate their religion. Headed by Tekeli, one of their principal nobles, the insurgents entered into an alliance with the Turks; and the reigning Sultan, Mahomet the Fourth, demanded certain conditions of their sovereign, which were equivalent to a declaration of war. Leopold was alarmed, and anxiously besought the aid of the Poles, who were then ruled by the celebrated Sobieski, under the title of John the Third. This gallant monarch had always espoused the interests of Louis the Fourteenth of France, and, being therefore opposed to those of Austria, was, at first, disinclined to assist the proud and tyrannical emperor; but as a Christian knight and a noble Pole, he had vowed unextinguishable hostility against the Moslems, and he therefore bound himself, by treaty, to aid Leopold with 48,000 men. The imperial force was small; it amounted barely to 37,000 troops, and was commanded by the Duke of Lorraine.

Early in May the Moslem army was on its march, in number 300,000 men, Turks, Hungarians, and Tartars. 300 pieces of cannon accompanied this terrible horde, and its leader was the proud and ambitious Kara Mustapha, the Grand Vizier, and son-in-law of the Sultan, whose fearful yoke he eagerly thirsted to fasten upon the Christian nations

of the west. The redoubtable host advanced from Belgrade along the right bank of the Danube, and encamped about Vienna, almost without a blow. The investment was soon completed, and on the 8th of July the Turkish artillery began to play upon the walls of the city. The siege was prosecuted with vigour, and the red-hot balls of the infidels caused great havoc among the defenders; but they bravely held out, cheered by the hope of speedy succour.

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For more than two months did this siege continue, and then was Vienna reduced to the last extremity. Famine, disease, and the sword, had cut off two-thirds of its garrison; and, in the quaint language of Sobieski's French biographer, "the grave continued open without ever closing its mouth." Many breaches were made in the walls; the massy bastions were crumbling in ruins, and entrenchments thrown up in haste in the streets formed the last resource of the besieged. Stahremberg, the gallant governor, he who had declared that "he would not surrender the place but with the last drop of his blood," began now No more time to lose, my to grow fearful of the result. lord, no more time to lose," was all that he could write to the Duke of Lorraine, for he had already announced the necessity of surrendering, if not relieved in three days; and the nightly signals of distress from the summits of the steeples, showed fully the extremities to which the city was reduced. But the Turkish Vizier seemed loth to storm it, and he was, besides, carelessly confident in his own strength, and in the weakness of his opponents. For when the news was brought to him that the king of Poland was advancing, the haughty Mustapha received it with contempt :-"The king of Poland!" said he, laughing, "I know, indeed, that he has sent Lubomirski with a few squadrons!"

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At length the long-expected aid arrived to the relief of the suffering city. One evening," says the French writer, M. de Salvandy, "the sentinel who was on the watch at the top of the steeple of St. Stephen's, perceived a blazing flame on the summits of the Calemberg; soon after an army was seen preparing to descend the ridge. Every telescope was now turned in that direction; and from the brilliancy of their lances, and the splendour of their banners, it was easy to see that it was the hussars of Poland, so redoubtable to the Osmanlies, who were approaching. The Turks were immediately to be seen forming their vast host into divisions,-one destined to oppose this new enemy, and one to continue the assaults on the besieged." The sight which presented itself to the view of Sobieski, and the Christian army, when, from the sterile and inhospitable summit of the Calemberg hill, they looked down upon the vast and uneven plain below, was a magnificent one. Sobieski was, however, nothing daunted by the grand array. "This man," said he, is badly encamped, he knows nothing of war, we shall tainly beat him."

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It was on the 12th of September, 1683, that was fought the great and mighty battle which was to decide the fate of Vienna and of Austria. At eleven o'clock the Poles appeared, and took their post on the right. "The Imperial eagles," says M. de Salvandy, "saluted the squadrons of gilded cuirasses, with cries of Long live King John Sobieski!' and the sound, repeated along the Christian line, startled the Mussulman force. Sobieski charged in the centre, and directed his attack against the scarlet tent of the Sultan. He advanced, exclaiming, Non nobis, Domine, sed tibi sit gloria! (Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thee, be all the glory!) The Tartars and the Spahis fled, when they heard the name of the Polish hero repeated, from one end to the other of the Ottoman lines. By Allah,' exclaimed Sultan Gieray, the king is with them! At this moment the moon was eclipsed, and the Mahometans beheld with dread, the crescent waning in the heavens.

"At the same time, the hussars of Prince Alexander, who formed the leading column, broke into a charge amidst the national ery, God defend Poland!' The remaining squadrons, led by all that was noblest and bravest in the country, resplendent in arms, buoyant in courage, followed at a gallop. They cleared, without drawing bridle, a ravine, at which infantry might have paused, and charged furiously up the opposite bank.

The shock was so violent, that almost all the lances

were splintered. The Pachas of Aleppo and Silistria were slain on the spot; four other pachas fell under the sabres of Jablonowski. At the same time, Charles of Lorraine, had routed the force of the principalities, and threatened the Ottoman camp. Kara Mustapha fell at once from the heights of confidence, to the depths of despair. Can you not aid me?' said he, to the Kara of the Crimea. I know the King of Poland,' was the answer, and I tell you, that with such an enemy, we have no chance of safety but in flight. Mustapha in vain strove to rally his troops; all, seized with a sudden panic, fled, not daring to lift their eyes to heaven. The cause of Europe, of Christendom, of civilization, had prevailed. The wave of the Mussulman power had retired, and retired never to return,'

This happy deliverance was celebrated by suitable rejoicings; and in commemoration of it, a thanksgiving festival was instituted, to be observed annually on the 12th of September. But this was laid aside on the hundredth anniversary, in 1783, a few years after the first partition of Poland, between Austria, Russia, and Prussia.

ITS OCCUPATION BY THE FRENCH
IN 1805; AND IN 1809.

VIENNA, like most of the capitals of continental Europe, was for a while in the hands of Buonaparte; and on two different occasions, in 1805, and in 1809. It was in 1805, that England, Russia, and Austria united in a third attempt to restrain the ambitious aggressions of the French Emperor, and he at once directed his armies into the territories of the last-mentioned power. His operations were attended with success; and on the 11th of November, his advanced guard appeared before Vienna, and took up their quarters in the suburbs of the city. At first, the intention of the Austrians had been to attempt the defence of their capital; but it was afterwards abandoned, because the fortifications, (the same which had withstood the siege of the Turks, in 1683,) were ancient and in disrepair, and could only have made sufficient resistance to occasion the destruction of the city. The Emperor Francis, therefore, departed, to place himself under the protection of the advancing Russian forces, and on the 13th, the French entered Vienna, when they found it totally evacuated by the Austrian troops, and the military duty performed by the inhabitants. Marshals Lannes and Murat, with the advanced guard, marched through the city without halting, and approaching the main stream of the Danube, gained the bridge across it, by a bold artifice. Napoleon himself entered Vienna on the 14th, and found there an immense quantity of military stores of all kinds; he afterwards retired to the splendid Imperial Palace of Schönbrunn, where he fixed his head-quarters. The city was garrisoned by the French till the peace of Presburgh, at the close of the year.

The second occasion on which the French occupied Vienna, was in 1809. Early in that year, Napoleon was in Spain, whither he had moved the great mass of his armies to subdue the unexpected resistance which he there found, to his unprincipled and rapacious ambition. Austria thought the moment favourable, and commenced a fresh war in April. But in a month her dreaded enemy was at the gates of Vienna, which he summoned to surrender on the 10th of May. The summons was rejected. The Archduke Maximilian had the command in the city; and, by his presence and exertions, he animated and encouraged the citizens to defend it, as long as the imperfect nature of the fortifications and their unskilfulness in the art of war would enable them. Mortars were quickly planted by the French, and a shower of bombs fell on the city. A flag of truce soon appeared, but merely to intimate that the young Archduchess, Maria Louisa, (who shortly afterwards became Napoleon's wife,) had been left behind, through indisposition, when the Emperor Francis, and the greater part of his family, abandoned the capital, and that she was now confined in the Imperial Palace, which happened to be in the direct front of the bombardment. The palace was of course respected, and Napoleon ordered the guns to play in another direction. But the resistance did not long continue; the city capitulated on the 12th, the Archduke Maximilian having, with the troops, secured his retreat, and destroyed the bridge across the Danube, which had been won by the French, on their former visit in 1805. Napoleon himself again fixed his head-quarters at Schönbrunn, and, after the battle of Wagram, he resided there for some months, until a peace was concluded.

SITUATION AND EXTENT. We have before observed that it stands on a plain, where VIENNA is a singular city in its form and arrangement. the Danube breaks into several branches. On the southernmost of these the capital is built, forming three concentrical circles; the first, is the old city, surrounded by its wall and rampart; the next, is a plain called the glacis, which forms a complete circle of gardens and pleasuregrounds, except where the city is washed by the arm of the Danube; and the third, which encloses the other two, is the suburbs; an immense mass of houses, more open and loosely arranged than the inner city. The low level space of ground, which thus divides Vienna into two distant parts, is nearly a quarter of a mile in width; and it was originally designed for the protection of the capital, in case of attack, by rendering the city, properly so called, with success, even when the suburbs were in the hands a separate defence, which, it was thought, might hold out of an enemy,

The old city itself is not more than three miles in circumference, for it may be walked round in less than an hour. Its fortifications were once complete; it was encompassed by bastions and ditches, and used to communicate with the suburbs by twelve gates. But when the French were about to take their departure, in 1809, they began busily to destroy these defences, and before they left, had made such extensive breaches as it would have required great labour and expense to repair. The Austrians had been convinced by experience of the inutility of these ramparts for the protection of their town, and so without thinking of repairing the breaches, they wisely resolved to convert what remained into places of public recreation, and use them for promenading; a purpose for which their breadth and elevation rendered them excellently adapted.

The suburbs occupy much more ground than the old city, their circuit being more than twelve miles; they are thirty-four in number, and are surrounded by a brick-wall, which travellers tell us is a mere instrument of police, to insure the detection of disaffected persons and contraband goods, by subjecting every thing, and every person, to a strict examination. The streets here are more regular and open than in the proper city, and they are interspersed with gardens and places of recreation; but the houses are less elevated, and not so well built, although most of the wealthy and distinguished have residences. The largest, highest, and best, are generally such as are built in those parts which look immediately towards the city, where many of the public buildings are situated. These suburbs are of different sizes, and they all bear different names. largest and most populous is the Leopoldstadt, which lies to the north of the city, and is the island formed between the arm of the Danube and its main stream. It contains

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six hundred houses, but there is another which contains only eleven.

THE STREETS AND SQUARES. THE old city numbers as many as one hundred and twenty streets, but they are mostly narrow and crooked, though generally well paved and clean. Their appearance is antiquated and irregular, and they are just what might be expected to have grown up in the course of successive centuries, on a spot that became more precious in proportion as the people who sought protection within the walls that surrounded it became more numerous. Yet there are some large squares and open spaces, and the best of them are in the most unfashionable parts of the city; but they are totally unlike our squares in London, for they are not railed off in the middle, and planted with trees and shrubs, nor are they encompassed with the splendid mansions of the noble and the wealthy. They are clean, open, wellpaved places, surrounded by the busy shops and the comfortable dwellings of the substantial citizens, and commonly ornamented with fountains, or religious monuments of some kind. Our engraving, in page 121, represents what is called the Graben, a broad space in the very heart of the town,-one of its busiest thoroughfares, and yet entered at both extremities by the narrowest and most inconvenient lanes in Vienna. It is adorned with two fountains, (one only of which appears in our view,) and they are themselves decorated with statues of a strange and ill-chosen kind. There is also to be seen a tall curious monument, of sixty-six feet high, dedicated to the most Holy Trinity, and raised by the Emperor Leopold the First, in memory Our of the plague which ravaged his capital in 1679. readers will distinguish it in the engraving by its pyramidal

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arsenals; that of the city, and that styled the_imperial | one; in the former is preserved the head of Kara Mustapha, who conducted the siege of 1683, and was strangled the following year at Belgrade, by the Sultan's order; and in the latter, are to be seen memorials of many great men,the armour of the celebrated crusader, Godfrey of Bouillon, of Frederic Barbarossa, and the Emperor, Charles the Fifth; the leathern jacket, and the hat worn by the great Gustavus Adolphus, when he was killed at the battle of Lützen, with the helmet of the renowned Prince Eugene of Savoy, the friend and brother-warrior of the famous Marlborough. It also contains the balloon which was used by the French at the battle of Fleurus in 1793, and which greatly contributed to their success on that

occasion.

RELIGION.

THE established religion of Vienna, as of the whole Austrian Empire, is the Roman Catholic; but every other form of worship is permitted. That the like toleration was not at all times practised by the rulers of this state, our readers may easily gather from what has been said of the history of the city; for we have there noticed, with what eagerness they persecuted those among their subjects, who refused to comply with the ordinances of the Romish Church, and how, more than once, they were made to tremble for the safety of their very capital, because they would oppress with goading cruelty, men too enlightened to adopt the fallacies of their creed. Bohemia, an important part of the Austrian dominions, was often conspicuously engaged in the religious struggles of Germany; and when we mention the name of this fallen kingdom, our readers will at once call to mind, that it is the country which gave birth to John Huss and Jerome of Prague, those noble martyrs to the primitive faith, who following in the steps of Wickliffe, contributed much by their preachings and their deeds, to pave the way for the more successful efforts of Luther, who came after them. In the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Hussites and Protestants were banished by the emperors from their territories; and even the celebrated Maria Theresa, who reigned with her son, from 1740 to 1780, had the barbarity to hunt down the few that yet lurked in the fastnesses of the mountains. But in 1781, an edict of general toleration was passed by Joseph the Second, and since then the number of open dissentients from popery has become greater. Vienna has had its share of the increase, but the number of protestants it contains is small; and it would seem that they are not so much Austrians by birth, as families who have come down from the Protestant States of Germany to settle in this capital.

The Viennese are strictly observant of the forms of their religion; and their devotion extends even to superstition. This is more especially the case with the lower classes, who place great reliance upon the efficacy of their pilgrimages to shrines, which their ignorant credulity regards as peculiarly sacred, because of the possession of some relic, to which tradition ascribes much holy virtue, or for any other reason equally valid. Mariazell is the spot more particularly favoured as the scene of their worship; and of their excursion to this place we shall speak below.

CHURCHES.

VIENNA contains fifty-seven Roman Catholic churches; one Lutheran, and one Calvinist meeting-house; four Greek chapels, and two synagogues. But only few of these edifices can boast of much architectural beauty, or richness of decoration.

At the head of them is the Cathedral church of St. Stephen, a beautiful Gothic structure, with a steeple remarkable for its symmetry and height. It was begun by the first Duke of Austria, before the middle of the twelfth century; in the earlier half of the thirteenth it was twice burnt down, and then rebuilt in its present form. Such, however, was the small extent of the city at that period, that it then stood considerably without the walls, although it is now in the very centre of the space they enclose. This church is the largest in Germany; its greatest length is 355 feet, and its extreme breadth 230. The height of the roof exceeds 80 feet, and that of the tower is said to be more than 450; an elevation surpassed only by that of the Münster at Strasburgh, which is upwards of five nundred feet.

The external appearance of this cathedral is sombre and

majestic, although its grandeur is somewhat impaired, by the gaudy glitter of some painted tiles which cover the roof. It is also considered faulty, with respect to the lavish profusion of stone-work which encumbers every corner, and greatly impairs its lightness as well as the effect of the intended ornaments. But these defects are unseen from within; there all is grand and simple, spacious and gloomy. We have observed, that the spire is celebrated for its height and beauty. It is remarkable, also, for being inclined from the perpendicular, an aberration which is said to have been produced by the shock of the Turkish cannon, in the famous siege of 1683, and to have been increased by the French bombardment, in 1809. The bell which this tower supports, was cast in 1711, by the directions of the Emperor Joseph the First, from the metal of the guns which the affrighted Mussulmans left behind them, when compelled to fly before John Sobieski and the Poles. It exceeds ten feet in height, and thirty in circumference; and weighs upwards of seventeen tons, exclusive of the clapper of thirteen hundred weight. Next to the cathedral in the scale of beauty, the Viennese place the church of St. Charles Borromæus, which they account to be uncommonly magnificent; but our countrymen speak rather contemptuously of its gilded frippery, as offensive to all pure taste. It stands in the suburb of Wieden, and was begun in 1715, by the Emperor Charles the Sixth, in obedience to a vow which he had made, when his capital was ravaged by an epidemical disease, two years before; but it was not finished until 1737. It is a large massy building, with two wings, and a small portico of six Corinthian columns, which is surmounted by an oval dome, cased in glittering copper. But a most important part of the pile, consists in two tall Doric pillars, standing isolated, one on either side of the approach to the portico, and rearing their high heads almost to a level with the lantern that crowns the cupola. Their diameter exceeds thirteen feet, and they are adorned each with bas-reliefs; those of the one, representing the Life and Death, and those of the other, the deeds of the Saint; and both preserving their continuity, by ascending in a spiral band, till at length they reach the capitals. Each of the columns is hollowed within, and a winding staircase leads to its summit, which is ornamented with four imperial eagles of gilt bronze, and surmounted by a small lantern-like piece of architecture. The interior of the church possesses some pictures and sculptured marbles; and the dome is painted. We give a view of this edifice, in page 128.

The church of the Capuchins is remarkable, but not for its beauty. In one of its low dark vaults, are the tombs of all the members of the Imperial House of Austria, beginning with Matthias. The coffins are of bronze, oblong in form, and very large; those of the earliest date quite plain and simple, others wrought with trophies and achievements. But these mausoleums do not contain the whole remains of the Imperial family; for, in accordance with a curious custom, their hearts are deposited in one of the chapels of the barefooted Augustines, and their entrails in the cathedral of St. Stephen.

Besides these edifices, we may mention the church of St. Peter, an unworthy imitation, on a poor scale, of its great namesake at Rome, and built in 1702. There is also a chapel "Des Ecossais," in which is to be seen the monument of the gallant Stahremberg, who held out so bravely against the Turks in 1683.

MANNERS, &c.

VIENNA has the reputation of being an extremely dissolute city; and, although some travellers are less unmeasured than others in their condemnation, all agree in representing it as one in which the public morals are much degraded. In this respect it resembles some other continental capitals, wherein similar despotic governments, and similar superstitions, necessarily exert a baneful influence upon the conduct of individuals, and upon the character of society.

The Viennese are distinguished by an unbounded love of pleasure, and a strong indisposition to all exertion, either of the body or the mind. Their fondness, indeed, for amusements is sufficiently attested in the fact, that, with scarcely a fifth part of the population of London, Vienna supports five theatres, two of which are Imperial property.

One curious characteristic of this people is, a most inordinate and silly love of high-sounding titles and forms of address, which, being conceived to give dignity and con