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Austria is a landlocked country in Central Europe with eight neighbours and about 9.2 million people. The Alps cover roughly six tenths of the land, rising to the Grossglockner, 3,798 m, while the Danube flows across the north past Linz and Vienna. It is a federal republic of nine states, each with its own capital, dialect and dishes.
For more than six hundred years Austria was the heart of the Habsburg lands, a great multinational empire ruled from Vienna. The empire broke apart at the end of the First World War, and in November 1918 Austria became a small republic. It was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, and after the Second World War it was occupied by the four Allied powers for ten years.
In 1955 the Austrian State Treaty restored full independence, and Austria declared itself permanently neutral. It joined the European Union in 1995. Today visitors come for ski slopes and mountain lakes, for Vienna's palaces, opera and coffee houses, and for Salzburg, the city where Mozart was born.
From Iron Age salt miners to a great empire, two world wars, occupation and a new start as a neutral republic, Austria's story is the story of Central Europe.
Salt had been mined in the mountains above Hallstatt since the Bronze Age. From about 800 BC, the Early Iron Age culture found there spread across much of Central Europe. Archaeologists named the whole culture after Hallstatt, where a great prehistoric cemetery was discovered in 1846.
On 1 November 996, Emperor Otto III signed a deed giving land to the Bishop of Freising 'in the region commonly called Ostarrîchi', meaning 'eastern realm'. It is the oldest known written form of the name that became Österreich, Austria.
On 17 September 1156, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa raised the March of Austria to a duchy with a document known as the Privilegium Minus. Austria was given as a hereditary fief to the Babenberg family, its rulers at the time.
On 26 August 1278, Rudolf of Habsburg defeated King Ottokar II of Bohemia on the Marchfeld plain north-east of Vienna. In 1282 Rudolf made his sons dukes of Austria, and their descendants, the Habsburgs, ruled Austria until 1918.
An Ottoman army besieged Vienna from July 1683, as it had already done once in 1529. On 12 September 1683 a relief army led by King Jan III Sobieski of Poland defeated the besiegers. The victory ended the Ottoman advance into Central Europe.
Maria Theresa, the only woman to rule the Habsburg lands in her own right, came to power in 1740 and reigned for 40 years. She fought long wars to keep her inheritance, reformed the state and, in 1774, introduced compulsory schooling. She had 16 children, including Marie Antoinette.
On 11 August 1804, in answer to Napoleon making himself Emperor of the French, Francis II proclaimed the Austrian Empire and became its first emperor as Francis I. Two years later he gave up the old crown of the Holy Roman Empire.
After Napoleon's defeat, the great powers of Europe met in Vienna from 1814 to redraw the map of the continent, chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich. The Final Act was signed on 9 June 1815.
After defeat by Prussia in 1866, the empire was reorganised by the Compromise of 1867 into a 'dual monarchy', Austria-Hungary. Emperor Franz Joseph was crowned King of Hungary on 8 June 1867, and each half had its own parliament and government.
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, and his wife Sophie were shot dead in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student. One month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the First World War began.
As the war ended, the empire broke apart. Emperor Karl I gave up his part in government on 11 November 1918, and the next day a republic was proclaimed in Vienna. In the elections of February 1919, women in Austria voted for the first time.
On 1 October 1920, parliament adopted the Federal Constitutional Law, drafted mainly by the legal scholar Hans Kelsen. It was set aside under the authoritarian regime of 1934, restored in 1945, and is still the basis of Austria's constitution today.
On 12 March 1938 German troops entered Austria, and the next day it was annexed to Nazi Germany. Persecution of Jews and political opponents began at once. More than 65,000 Austrian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and about 125,000 were forced to flee. Many Austrians supported the Nazi regime, and in 1991 Chancellor Franz Vranitzky formally acknowledged Austria's share of responsibility.
In April 1945 Soviet troops took Vienna, and on 27 April a provisional government under Karl Renner declared Austria independent again. The country and its capital were divided into four zones of occupation, run by the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France.
On 15 May 1955, the four powers and Austria signed the State Treaty at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, restoring Austria as a sovereign state. The last occupation troops left in October, and on 26 October 1955 parliament declared Austria's permanent neutrality. That day is now the National Day.
After a referendum in June 1994, in which about two thirds voted yes, Austria joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, together with Finland and Sweden. It adopted the euro in 1999.
Austrian food mixes Alpine farm cooking with the kitchens of the old empire, from Hungary, Bohemia and northern Italy. The day starts with bread rolls, butter, jam, cheese and coffee. The midday meal was traditionally the main one, often a clear soup followed by meat and dumplings, and a mid-morning or afternoon snack is called a 'Jause'. Austria is famous above all for its cakes and pastries, best enjoyed slowly in a coffee house.
A thin escalope of veal, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and fried in lard or clarified butter until the coating puffs up golden. It is served with a wedge of lemon and potato salad, parsley potatoes or a green salad.
By Austrian rules, a 'Wiener Schnitzel' must be made from veal. A pork version has to be called 'Wiener Schnitzel vom Schwein' or 'Schnitzel Wiener Art'.
Beef simmered slowly with root vegetables and spices. The broth is often served first as a soup, then the sliced meat with roast potatoes, apple and horseradish sauce (Apfelkren) and a sour cream and chive sauce.
Emperor Franz Joseph is said to have eaten boiled beef at his private table very often, and Tafelspitz became a symbol of Viennese cooking.
A thick, fluffy pancake made with whipped egg whites, torn into pieces in the pan, lightly caramelised and dusted with icing sugar. It is served with plum compote or apple sauce, as a dessert or a hearty lunch in mountain huts.
The name means 'the emperor's mess'. Legends link it to Emperor Franz Joseph, who is said to have happily eaten a dish his wife had refused.
Thin layers of pastry rolled around sliced apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and buttered breadcrumbs, baked and served in slices dusted with icing sugar, often with whipped cream or vanilla sauce.
The oldest known strudel recipes, handwritten in the 1690s, are kept in the Vienna City Library. Bakers say the dough should be stretched so thin that you could read a newspaper through it.
A dense chocolate sponge cake with a layer of apricot jam under a firm, shiny chocolate glaze. In Austria it is served with a spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream.
It is credited to Franz Sacher, who by the best-known story created it as a teenage apprentice in 1832 for Prince Metternich. The Hotel Sacher and the Demel patisserie argued in court for years over who could sell the 'original'. Since the case ended in 1963, the hotel has sold the 'Original Sacher-Torte' and Demel 'Demel's Sacher-Torte'.
A shortcrust tart made with ground nuts, butter and cinnamon, filled with redcurrant or raspberry jam and topped with a pastry lattice.
The oldest known recipe, from 1653, was found in the archives of Admont Abbey in Styria, and it may be the oldest cake named after a place.
A sweet, light soufflé of whipped egg whites, sugar and a little egg yolk, baked for a few minutes in three golden peaks and dusted with icing sugar.
The three peaks are said to stand for three hills of Salzburg: the Gaisberg, the Mönchsberg and the Kapuzinerberg, with the sugar as snow.
A round chocolate sweet with a centre of pistachio marzipan, wrapped in nougat and coated in dark chocolate, named after Mozart.
The Salzburg confectioner Paul Fürst created it in 1890. After a court ruling in 1996, only his family firm's hand-made sweets may be called 'Original Salzburger Mozartkugeln'.
Round dumplings made from cubes of stale bread rolls soaked in milk, mixed with egg, onion and parsley and simmered in water. They soak up the gravy of goulash, roast pork or a creamy mushroom sauce.
Sweet dumplings of potato or curd cheese (Topfen) dough, each with a whole apricot inside, simmered and then rolled in breadcrumbs toasted in butter and dusted with sugar.
'Marille' is the Austrian word for apricot. The Wachau valley on the Danube is famous for its apricots.
Large half-moon pasta pockets from Carinthia, filled with curd cheese (Topfen), potato and mint, sealed with a crimped edge and served with melted butter.
Small soft egg noodles layered with strong mountain cheese, such as Bergkäse, and topped with crispy fried onions. In parts of Vorarlberg it is eaten with apple sauce.
Clear beef broth with thin strips of pancake, sprinkled with chives. It is one of the most common soups to start a traditional Austrian meal.
A cold platter served on a wooden board, called a 'Brettl': cured and smoked meats, bacon, cheese, spreads, horseradish, pickles and dark bread. In Styria it often comes with a salad dressed with dark green pumpkin seed oil.
Styrian pumpkin seed oil looks green in a thin layer and deep red in a thick one. It is used cold, on salads and even on vanilla ice cream.
The classic coffee of the Viennese coffee house, similar to a cappuccino but milder: coffee with steamed milk and a cap of milk foam. Like every coffee in a traditional coffee house, it comes with a glass of water.
A sparkling herbal lemonade created in 1957 by the Viennese businessman Erwin Klein. It is drunk on its own or mixed with wine or beer.
The name comes from 'auf der Alm dudeln', an old phrase for yodelling on an Alpine pasture.
Each of Austria's nine states has its own capital. Vienna is by far the largest city, but Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck each have their own character, and some of the best-loved places are tiny towns on a lake or on the Danube.
The capital and largest city, with about 2 million people, more than one in five of all Austrians. For centuries it was the seat of the Habsburg emperors, and it is still a great city of music, palaces and coffee houses on the Danube.
Austria's second-largest city, with about 308,000 people, and the capital of Styria, on the River Mur. Its old town is one of the best preserved in Central Europe, and with four universities it is a lively student city.
The third-largest city, with about 214,000 people, and the capital of Upper Austria, on the Danube. Once a Roman settlement called Lentia, it is today an industrial centre with a strong interest in new media and art. The astronomer Johannes Kepler taught here.
The fourth-largest city, with about 158,000 people, on the River Salzach near the German border. For centuries it was ruled by prince-archbishops, who grew rich on salt and built a baroque city under a hilltop fortress. Mozart was born here in 1756.
The capital of Tyrol, with about 132,000 people, on the River Inn. Its name means 'bridge over the Inn'. High mountains rise right behind the old town, and Emperor Maximilian I made it one of his favourite residences around 1500.
The capital of Carinthia, with about 106,000 people, near the Slovenian border at the eastern end of the Wörthersee, a warm Alpine lake popular for swimming. It is also the cultural centre of the Carinthian Slovenes.
The capital of Vorarlberg, Austria's westernmost state, with about 30,000 people, on the shore of Lake Constance near Germany and Switzerland.
The capital of Burgenland since 1925 and the smallest of Austria's state capitals, with about 16,000 people. The composer Joseph Haydn worked here for the Esterházy princes and is buried in the town's Bergkirche.
A tiny village of fewer than 800 people between the Hallstätter See and the Dachstein mountains. Salt has been mined here since prehistoric times, and the village gave its name to the Hallstatt culture. Today it receives many thousands of visitors a day, so a quiet, respectful visit is appreciated.
A small town on the Danube at the western end of the Wachau valley, a 36 km stretch of vineyards, apricot orchards, monasteries and castles between Melk and Krems. Above the town rises the golden-yellow Melk Abbey.
The summer residence of the Habsburgs, a baroque palace with 1,441 rooms and huge gardens crowned by the Gloriette. Emperor Franz Joseph was born here in 1830 and died here in 1916. It is one of Austria's most visited sights and has been a World Heritage Site since 1996.
UNESCO World Heritage
Vienna's great cathedral in the heart of the old town, begun in 1137. Its south tower, 136 m high and known as the 'Steffl', took 65 years to build, and its roof is covered in about 230,000 glazed tiles. The Pummerin, cast in 1951, is the largest bell in Austria.
UNESCO World Heritage
The vast imperial palace in central Vienna, the Habsburgs' winter residence for centuries. Today it is the official residence of the Federal President and houses the imperial treasury, the Austrian National Library and the Spanish Riding School.
UNESCO World Heritage
Two baroque palaces, the Upper and Lower Belvedere, built for Prince Eugene of Savoy and completed in 1723, with a formal garden between them. The Austrian State Treaty was signed here in 1955. Today it is an art museum whose collection includes Gustav Klimt's 'The Kiss'.
UNESCO World Heritage
Begun in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard, this fortress on the Festungsberg is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe, 250 m long. A funicular railway has carried visitors up from the old town since 1892.
UNESCO World Heritage
The house at Getreidegasse 9 where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756, in the family's third-floor flat. It has been a museum since 1880 and shows his childhood violin and family portraits.
UNESCO World Heritage
A huge limestone cave high above Werfen, about 40 km south of Salzburg. The cave system is more than 42 km long, and in its first kilometre, the part open to visitors, the rock is covered in ice. It is open from May to October, and warm clothes are needed inside.
A Benedictine monastery on a rock above the Danube, founded in 1089 and rebuilt in grand baroque style between 1702 and 1736 by Jakob Prandtauer. Its library and church are famous, and monks still live and teach here. It is part of the Wachau World Heritage Site.
UNESCO World Heritage
The symbol of Graz, standing on the castle hill above the old town. When Napoleon's troops pulled down the fortress in 1809, the people of Graz paid to save the Clock Tower. On its clock the larger hand shows the hours and the smaller hand the minutes, the opposite of most clocks.
UNESCO World Heritage
A balcony in Innsbruck's old town, finished in 1500 for Maximilian I, covered with 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles. From here the ruler and his court watched festivals and tournaments in the square below.
The carol 'Silent Night' was first sung on Christmas Eve 1818 in the church of St Nicholas in Oberndorf, near Salzburg. The priest Joseph Mohr had written the words in 1816, and the teacher Franz Xaver Gruber wrote the melody for that evening. It has been translated into about 300 languages.
The zoo at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna was founded in 1752 and is described as the oldest zoo in the world that is still open.
The Vienna Boys' Choir goes back to 1498, when Emperor Maximilian I ordered six boys to sing at his court. Today about 100 boys aged 9 to 14 sing in four touring choirs named after Bruckner, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert.
The red-white-red flag is one of the oldest national symbols still in use; the earliest evidence is a seal from 1230. Legend says Duke Leopold V's white tunic was soaked in blood at the siege of Acre, except under his belt.
The German name of Austria, Österreich, comes from 'Ostarrîchi', 'eastern realm', first written in a deed of 996.
Viennese coffee house culture was added to Austria's national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011. The listing describes coffee houses as places 'where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill'.
The Spanish Riding School in Vienna was first named in 1565. Its Lipizzaner horses are born dark and slowly turn white as they grow up. Its classical horsemanship has been on UNESCO's list of the intangible heritage of humanity since 2015.
Johann Strauss II's waltz 'The Blue Danube' was first performed in Vienna in 1867. The first performance was only a mild success, but today many Austrians treat it as an unofficial anthem.
Since 1 January 2012, Austria's national anthem has spoken of a 'home of great daughters and sons'; before, it mentioned only sons. Its melody was long credited to Mozart, but scholars now think it was written by someone else.
The song 'Edelweiss' is not an Austrian folk song or anthem. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote it in 1959 for the Broadway musical The Sound of Music.
The film The Sound of Music (1965) was shot partly in and around Salzburg. The real von Trapp family left Austria in 1938 by train, not by walking over the mountains as in the film.
The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Vienna the world's most liveable city in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024. As of 2026, it ranks second, behind Copenhagen.
When Austria joined the European Union in 1995, 23 Austrian food words, such as 'Marille' for apricot and 'Topfen' for curd cheese, were written into the accession treaty with the same legal status as the words used in Germany.
As of 2026, Austria has 12 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, from the historic centres of Vienna, Salzburg and Graz to the Semmering mountain railway and the Wachau valley.
Many everyday words, especially for food, are different from the words used in Germany. In German every noun starts with a capital letter. The pronunciation guides are simple approximations for English speakers. Pronunciation is written the way it sounds; the capital letters show where the stress goes. Audio is coming soon.
In German (Deutsch), as spoken in Austria. Austrians switch easily to standard German with visitors, and many people speak English, but a greeting in German is always welcome.
Cars need a vignette (toll sticker or digital vignette) to use Austria's motorways and expressways, with options from 1 day to a year. As of 2026 the sticker is sold for the last time, and from 2027 there will only be the digital vignette. A 2-month or annual digital vignette bought online by a private buyer is valid only from the 18th day after purchase, so buy early, or choose a 1-day or 10-day one.
Most shops, including supermarkets, are closed on Sundays. Some shops at larger railway stations, at airports and at petrol stations stay open, and so do restaurants and cafés, so do your shopping on Saturday.
When you enter a small shop or a restaurant, say 'Grüß Gott' and 'Auf Wiedersehen' when you leave. It is noticed and appreciated.
Tipping is usual but modest: round up, or add about 5 to 10 percent for a meal. Tell the server the total you want to pay when you hand over the money, rather than leaving coins on the table.
Cards are accepted more and more, but Austria is still quite a cash-loving country, and some small shops, huts and taverns take cash only.
Austria uses round two-pin plugs (type F, 'Schuko') and 230 volts, so visitors from Britain, Ireland and North America need an adapter. Tap water is of excellent quality and safe to drink.
The European number 112 works everywhere. Austria also has its own numbers: 144 for an ambulance, 122 for the fire brigade, 133 for the police and 140 for mountain rescue.
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