Connoisseur’s Vienna - Art, architecture, music & private visits
7
days
from
£4,410
23rd June 2025
- Art, architecture, music: the main sites as well as lesser-known ones.
- Several special arrangements for out-of-hours visits or private buildings.
- Perfectly located heritage hotel.
- Two included musical performances. We have chosen to include a performance at the world-class Staatsoper and a concert at the Konzerthaus.
With visits to the chief sights as well as lesser ones and little-visited treasures, with privileged access to places not normally accessible and two musical evenings, this tour provides an exceptionally rich and rounded cultural experience. Whether or not you have been to the city before, it will present Vienna in a truly memorable way.
Grandiloquent palaces and labyrinthine mediaeval streets; broad boulevards and quiet courtyards; at times embattled on the frontier of Christendom, yet a treasury containing some of the greatest of European works of art; an imperial city without an empire: Vienna is a fascinating mix, a quintessentially Central European paradox.
The seat of the Habsburgs, pre-eminent city of the Holy Roman Empire and capital of a vast multinational agglomeration of territories, Vienna is magnificently equipped with buildings which were created by imperial and aristocratic patronage. But the history of Vienna is shot through with diversity, difference and dissent, and some of the choicest items we see were created in defiance of mainstream orthodoxy.
A feature of this tour is several specially arranged visits to private palaces or institutions which are not generally open to the public or are off the beaten track. Because of the privileged nature of these visits we can only name a few of them here, but they include Baroque palaces, nineteenth-century halls, pioneers of modernism, churches and a synagogue.
And then there is the music. As home for Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler and countless other composers, Vienna is pre-eminent in the history of music. We will confirm musical performances in the spring.
Itinerary
Fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Vienna (Austrian Airlines). An afternoon walk around the Hofburg, the Habsburg winter palace, a vast agglomeration from six centuries of building activity. See the incomparable collection of precious regalia and objets d’art in the Treasury, and the glorious library hall by Fischer von Erlach.
Walk through the Roman and mediaeval core to see a cross-section of architecture including Gothic and Baroque churches and some of Vienna’s most enchanting streetscapes. Guided tour of the Synagogue (Josef Kornhäusel, 1824), followed by a visit to a private chapel. The Jesuit church was spectacularly refurbished c. 1700 by the master of illusionist painting, Andrea Pozzo. In the afternoon private visit to the great Baroque palace of the Liechtenstein family (Gartenpalais), home to perhaps the finest collection in private hands in Europe. Evening concert at the Konzerthaus with Le Concert des Nations and Jordi Savall (conductor): Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 1, 2, 4.
Visit the palace and garden of Schloss Belvedere, built on sloping ground overlooking Vienna for Prince Eugene of Savoy, which constitutes one of the finest residential complexes of the 18th century. It now houses the Museum of Austrian Art with paintings by Klimt and Schiele. Located beyond the Ringstrasse, the Church of St Charles is the Baroque masterpiece of Fischer von Erlach.
Drive around the Ringstrasse, the boulevard which encircles the old centre and is the locus classicus of historicist architecture. The magnificent Liechtenstein Palace (Stadtpalais) was built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries by one of the richest families in the Habsburg Empire and has magnificent Rococo interiors and original furnishings. Evening visit to and dinner at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the world’s greatest art collections, particularly rich in Italian, Flemish and Dutch pictures.
Drive to the outskirts to see the facades of buildings by Otto Wagner; the richly decorated apartment blocks in the Linke Wienzeile and the hospital church ‘Am Steinhof’, the finest manifestation of Viennese Secessionism. The exteriors of Otto Wagner’s two summer houses provide a contrast of the development of his architectural styles. Visit the great hall of the Academy of Art and the Secession building, built in 1898 as an exhibition hall for avant-garde artists, containing Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. Evening performance at the Staatsoper: Pique Dame (Tchaikowsky), with Timur Zangiev (conductor), Yusif Eyvazov (Herman), Alexey Markov (Tomski and Pluto), Boris Pinkhasovich (Jeletzki), Elena Zaremba (Countess), Anna Netrebko (Lisa), Elena Maximova (Polina and Daphnis).
A tour of the Parliament building, a splendid example of enriched Neo-classicism, and visit a late-19th-century town house on the Ringstrasse. Afternoon at the Museumsquartier, an art centre in the imperial stables. The Museum of Applied Arts has international and Viennese collections, which are strikingly displayed.
Visit the Albertina with its splendid neo-classical interiors, also housing one of Europe’s most important collections of modernist art, including works by Monet, Picasso, Gauguin and Chagall. Time for a leisurely lunch before driving to the airport for the flight to London Heathrow, arriving at at c. 6.40pm.
Please note: because the itinerary is dependent on a number of appointments with private owners, the order and even the content of the tour may vary.
Expert speaker
Dr Jarl Kremeier
Art historian specialising in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts; teaches Art History at the Berlin College of Acting and the Senior Student’s Department of Berlin’s Freie Universität. He studied at the Universities of Würzburg, Berlin and the Courtauld, is a contributor to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art, author of a book on the Würzburg Residenz, and of articles on Continental Baroque architecture and architectural theory.
Practicalities
Flights (Economy) with Austrian Airlines (Airbus 320); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts; 2 lunches and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and local guide where required.
Tickets (first category) to 2 performances are included. Tickets are subject to confirmation.
Hotel Bristol, Vienna: 5-star hotel in a superb location on the Ringstrasse near the opera house, traditionally furnished and decorated. Single rooms are doubles for sole use.
This tour involves a lot of walking in the town centre, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Public transport (metro or tram), is used on some occasions.
Average distance by coach per day: 6 miles.
Between 10 and 22 participants.
Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.
Dates & prices
2025
Date
Speaker
Price
17
Date:
23rd - 29th June 2025
Speaker:
Dr Jarl Kremeier
Price:
£4,410 ex flights
£4,760 inc flights
(Based on two sharing)Testimonials
“Very well thought out. Good mix of interiors/exteriors of some very interesting buildings.
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“We appreciated the way the lecturer took time to get to know everyone and deal with questions and particular interests.
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“The combination of architecture, art and music, combined with with visits to places not open to the public made the itinerary excellent.
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“Very elegant hotel, very erudite tours of museums, art galleries, churches and private palaces, very entertaining lecturer and helpful tour manager, and, not least, interesting fellow travellers.
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