Around the Ring

Abstract

For a leisurely stroll the tour around the inner city of Vienna is somewhat too strenuous. The unique monumental Ringstrasse, which is six and a half kilometres long, encloses the inner city in a horseshoe-like shape and at the northeast it is completed by the quay along the Danube Canal to form a ring. The “Ring” as it is usually known in Vienna is 57 metres wide, has avenues of trees and a bicycle path that was originally intended for horse riders. The Ringstrasse, which — following the demolition of the old fortified walls — was created by a decree of Emperor Franz Joseph as part of an urban expansion plan was opened on 1 May 1865 and gradually developed into Vienna’s most splendid street as monumental buildings in the various historicist styles fashionable at the time were erected one after the other and airy parks laid out between them.