Habsburg Austria - Castles & churches, houses & palaces, town & country

Habsburgs first came to Austria in 1273; their departure in 1919 terminated the longest innings of any dynasty in European history. The territory over which they ruled had meanwhile expanded into a vast multi-national empire which encompassed much of central and eastern Europe which is now split between ten different countries. There was, of course, a concomitant accumulation of titles including several kingships and, for much of their time in power, the most august title of them all: Holy Roman Emperor.

This tour concentrates on the lands which are now more or less coterminous with modern Austria, a clutch of dukedoms and counties in largely mountainous terrain which were not particularly prosperous. However, proximity to the principal Habsburg seat, Vienna, meant that a high proportion of the artistic and architectural splendours of the Empire were concentrated in the Austrian lands. Only two days are devoted to Vienna itself on this tour, which concentrates on the smaller towns and the architecture of the countryside.

Prominent in this category are the abbeys, some of which can boast a continuity of spiritual life since the early Middle Ages, many of them rebuilt on a most lavish scale during the Baroque age. The ruling dynasty and the aristocracy of their empire spawned a profusion of castles, country houses, town palaces and hunting lodges, and created art collections which today form the kernel of some of the best of their kind in the world.