Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/335

Rh of this forest of fine architecture, which is modern Vienna!

The old town (Stadt) lying to the right side of the Danube canal was surrounded by a rampart which went like a semicircle having the Danube canal for its base. That rampart has now been removed and replaced by spacious streets like the Boulevards of Paris, and called Rings in Vienna. The finest new buildings of Vienna are along this spacious street, and I believe this semicircle will, in the splendour of the architecture which lines it on both sides, hold its own against any street of equal length in the world! On all sides of the semicircle as well as beyond the Danube canal stretch the suburbs of Vienna, and the total population of the city with its suburbs was over a million in 1881, and has increased since.

To commence with the semi-circle where it commences from the Danube canal, we proceed along the Schotten Ring with many fine buildings. Proceeding further we come to Francis Ring which boasts of the finest buildings of Vienna. To our right are the superb new University buildings, (far excelling the University buildings of London, Paris and Berlin), the Hotel de Ville built in ornamented Gothic style, and the Parliament house of Vienna completed only last year. To our left is the new Theatre of Vienna. We pass by the Palais de Justice, and then go along the Burg Ring with the two lofty and imposing museums to our right, and the imperial palace