A Waltz Across Time

Vienna, judged the most liveable city in the world, is remoulding its historic identity with the help of technology and creativity

- Anita Rao Kashi

The early morning light glints offthe spires of St Stephen’s Cathedral, as silence hangs in the air. In a few hours, it will be a vastly different scene, with the noise and bustle of hordes of descending tourists, matched by the swarms of vendors in kitschy Mozart costumes trying to sell concert tickets. But at this early hour, it is easier to appreciate not just the imposing cathedral but also some of the other magnificent structures in Vienna’s old town Innere Stadt, such as the Opera House and the Hofburg palace, and buildings in the MuseumsQuartier and those lining the Ringstrasse, a boulevard that circles the Innere Stadt.

This historic centre of Vienna, with its mix of Medieval and Baroque architecture, gives the city its main identity. But in the last decade or so, it has incorporated within the folds of this old-world image elements of a sleeker and more modern way of life that combines technology with creativity.

In 2019, The Economist magazine named Vienna as the most liveable city in the world for the second year in a row based on an annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The survey ranks 140 global cities based on 30 factors grouped into five categories such as environment, infrastructure, health care, stability and culture. Vienna scored an enviable, near-perfect score of 99.1 out of 100. EIU’s ranking followed the Mercer Quality of Living Survey, which has ranked Vienna at the top for 10 years in a row.