I spent the morning watching the beautiful Lipizzaner horses practicing for their big show this weekend. They’re housed at the Spanish Riding School, which is a stately 300 year old Baroque Hall within the Hofburg Palace area.
Lipizzaner stallions were a creation of horse loving Habsburg Archduke Charles. Wanting to breed an intelligent and easily trainable animal, he imported Andalusian horses from his homeland of Spain, then matched them with a local line. Italian and Arabic bloodlines were later added to tweak various characteristics. The name “Lipizzaner” comes from Lipica, the Slovenian town where one of the earliest stud farms was located.
Lipizzaner stallions are known for their noble gait and Baroque profile. These regal horses have changed shape with the tenor of the times: They were bred strong and stout during wars, and frilly and slender in more cultured eras. But they’re always born black, fade to gray, and turn a distinctive white in adulthood.
I included pics of an adult, a young black one and all of them together to show the beautiful arena. Also, on my way to see the horses I noticed they were having a Claude Monet showing and thought it was cool that they painted one of his pictures on to the stairs leading up to the museum and included that as well.
After that I stopped by what they call the Naschmarkt. The name translates to “Nibble Market” and I pretty much nibbled my way thru lunch since they all hand out free samples of their foods. Lots of salamis, cheeses, produce and tons of olives! Each Saturday there’s a huge flea market there and in the olden days they say the locals would come to hire a monkey to pick little critters out of their hair (Yuk!).
I then swung by the beautiful Opera House to take a guided tour of the inside. The outside is under construction so I didn’t take any pics of it but the inside was beautiful. I included a pic of the main hall with it’s horseshoe shaped box seats. I thought the outside was beautiful but when it was originally built in 1888, the Emperor as well as the people did not like it because it did not have a grand staircase entrance on the outside. The architect who designed it was so distraught over the negative reaction he committed suicide. I believe now the people like the building and the performances are always sold out. It was amazing to learn that they put on 60 different shows a year and they never repeat the same show on consecutive nights. That keeps the stage hands very busy each night swapping out the sets!
My last stop for the day was to another beautiful palace called Belvedere Palace. This was the palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), the still much appreciated conqueror of the Ottomans. Eugene, a Frenchman considered too short and too ugly (sorry that’s what the history says!) to be in the service of Louis XIV, offered his services to the Habsburg’s. He then became the greatest military genius of his age, the savior of Austria, and the toast of Viennese society. When you conquer cities as Eugene did, you get really rich. With his wealth he built this palace complex. Only Eugene had the cash to compete with the Habsburg’s and he built this to rival the Schonbrunn Palace I visited yesterday. Prince Eugene had no heirs so the state got his property and made it a tourist attraction. What a bummer!
That’s all for now. Happy Hump Day to all!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 