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Even by the standards of a city whose dancing horses, cherubic choir boys and imperial palaces attract over eight million overnight stays annually, 2006 will be a busy year for Vienna. The 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth is being commemorated with big budget events including the historic Theater an der Wien’s reopening as an opera house, an exhibition on Mozart’s life designed by Zaha Hadid at the Albertina (www.albertina.at) and the conversion of one of his myriad Viennese residences – the Figarohaus – into a Mozart Museum (Domgasse 5, 512 1791, www.mozarthausvienna.at). Given Vienna’s status as the world’s classical music capital, the fuss is hardly surprising and throughout 2006, all the city’s major music venues – the Staatsoper, Musikverein and Konzerthaus – pay tribute to the city’s adopted son.
Rather more modestly, the 150th birthday of another of Vienna’s famous citizens – Sigmund Freud – is also being celebrated in 2006. Events, including exhibitions, films and lectures, centre on the fascinating apartment/museum at Berggasse 19 (319 1596, www.freud-museum.at).
The city’s chop houses (Beisln), wine taverns (Heuriger), coffee houses and open-air Naschmarkt offer tremendous sensual pleasures. These go hand in hand with visits to Vienna’s exploding gallery scene, particularly the sprawling MuseumsQuartier arts centre (www.mqw.at) that combines the contemporary (521 8933, www.kunsthallewien.at) with the world’s largest Schiele collection (525 700, www.leopoldmuseum.org, closed Tue) and modern classics at Mumok (52500, www.mumok.at, closed Mon). Traditionalists will warm to the Austrian Gallery (Prinz Eugen Strasse 27, 795 57134, www.belevdere.at, closed Mon) and its Klimts and Schieles, the National Gallery’s Flemish paintings (Maria Theresien Platz, 525 24403, www.khm.at, closed Mon) or Palais Liechtenstein’s collection of baroque art (Fürstengasse 1, 319 57670, www.liechtenstein museum.at, closed Tue).
With its density of sights, visitors gravitate towards the Innere Stadt, the UNESCO-listed city centre that surrounds the Stephansdom, Vienna’s Gothic cathedral. The centre is a glorious parade of architectural styles, medieval lanes and chic pedestrian shopping streets. Circling it is the Ringstrasse, the boulevard built along the old city walls that symbolises the advent of bourgeois power. Trams 1 or 2 offer an enjoyably cheap tour of its 19th-century revivalism. Beyond the Ringstrasse, districts 4-8 are the best for strolling, window-shopping and appreciating Vienna’s reassuringly slow-paced urban life.
• Tourist information: Albertinaplatz (2111 4222, www.vienna.info).
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