The beautiful capital of Austria is nestled at the foot of the Alps, on either side of the majestic Danube, surrounded by lush oak and beech forests in an area of only 415 square kilometers.
The population of Vienna, which includes Germans, Slovenes, Slovaks, Croats, Czechs, and Hungarians, is more than 1.7 million. Since 1995 Austria has been a member of the EU. The country's monetary unit is the euro (EUR).
The first settlements on the territory of modern Vienna appeared in the VI millennium BC. But the date of the founding of the city is considered to be the first century AD, when a fortified point of the Roman legionaries, called "Vindobona", was established here. Five centuries later, the settlement of Venia, which means "forest stream" in honor of the river flowing nearby, slowly grew on this place.
Vienna has survived a Turkish siege (1529), a terrible plague epidemic (mid-17th to early 18th centuries), an invasion by Napoleon's army (1805), and the devastation of World Wars I and II. Today, it is a thriving European city that is widely regarded as one of the best places in the world to live.
