POPULATION, EDUCATION, AND CHARITIES. The population in 1900 was 1.074,957, Vienna being the largest city in Austria-Hungary and the fourth largest in Europe. About three-quarters of the population are Germans and Roman Catholic. Great advance has been made in the educational facilities. The Grand Opera is sec ond to none in the world, and the acting at the llofburg Theatre is scarcely surpassed anywhere. In addition to the educational institutions al ready mentioned, and including the famous con servatory of music, the Oriental Academy ( school for training in diplomatic service, dating from 1754) claims particular attention. The Government printing establishment is one of the most complete of its kind. Among the charity institutions not already mentioned are the sol diers' asylum, famous institutions for the blind and the deaf and dumb, the general hospital, the largest in Europe, with 2000 beds, and the veterinary hospital, with more than 1000 stu dents.
IhsTour. Vienna is the Vindobona of the Ro mans, under whom it was strategically impor tant. At the close of the eighth century it passed from the possession of the Avars to that of the Franks. In the twelfth century it became the residence of the Babenberg dukes of Austria. The traffic which arose in connection with the Crusades caused Vienna to prosper. Ottokar of Bohemia, in the middle of the thirteenth cen tury, enlarged the bounds of the city. Soon afterwards it became the capital of the Hapsburg rulers of Austria. In 1365 the university was founded. From the fifteenth century the Haps
bu•gs permanently occupied the Imperial throne of Germany. which added greatly to the impor tance of Vienna. The Turks twice besieged it without success, in 1529 and 1683. The second time, when it was heroically defended by Star hemberg, it was on the point of falling into the hands of the Mussulmans, when it was rescued by the splendid victory of the Polish King, John Sobieski, and the German princes, achieved be fore it. walls (September 12, 1683). In 1735 and 1738 treaties were concluded here in connection with the War of the Polish Succession. (See SuccEssioN WARS.) Vienna was greatly em bellished by Maria Theresa and her sons. The city was for a brief period occupied by Napoleon in 1805 and 1809, and the battles of Aspern and "%Vagrant were fought in its environs, the latter followed by the Treaty of Sch6nbrunn (1809). The famous Congress of Vienna was held in 1814-15. The city was the scene of a revolu tionary movement iu 1848, which ended in blood shed. (See A USTRIA-11 UNGARY.) Under Francis Joseph Vienna has undergone an unparalleled transformation, and has beoene architecturally one of the most imposing capitals of the world.
Consult: Berm:01;1..11i- and Neuirien (Vienna, 1879) ; Oesterreieh in Wort nod Bild (ib., 1886) ; Weiss. Gesehich to der Madt Wien, contains bibli ography (ib.. 1882) Guglia, Uesehiclitc (ler Stadt Wien