About Vienna - Your City Travel Guide
About Vienna - Your City Travel Guide
About Vienna - Your City Travel Guide
Ringstraße, Ringstrasse, Ring boulevard

Ring Boulevard

Vienna Ring Boulevard is 4 kilometres long and circles the city centre. The construction of the Ring Boulevard was initiated by Emperor Franz Joseph I in December 1857.

The magnificent road was errected on the free space, which emerged after tearing down the former city walls, glacis and military enforcements protecting the city center, today's first district ('Innere Stadt'). By this the emperor hoped to overcome the separation of city center and the suburbs, which had officially become part of Vienna in 1850. Ring boulevard was generously planned, leaving sufficient space for a shaded avenue and monumental buildings like Hofburg, Austrian Parliament, State Opera House, Museum of Fine Arts, the first public observatory Urania and Vienna university among others.

Even though most buildings have been planned and build at pretty much the same time, their styles vary strongly. This mix of archiectural styles is often referred to as 'Ringstrassenstil' and takes its principles from Historicism. Various styles were copied to underline the function of the buildings: the Museum of Fine Arts and its counterpart the Museum of Natural History were built to resemble Italian Renaissance, so was the Vienna Opera House. Parliament echos Greek classicism as this was the epoch of the birth of democracy.

The Ring Boulevard was ceremonously inaugurated on 1st May in 1865 and is one of the biggest and most beautiful boulevards of its kind.

Ring Boulevard: Schubertring, Kärntnerring, Opernring, Burgring, Dr. K. Renner Ring, Dr. K. Lueger Ring & Schottenring

Sightseeing