Lipizzan Horses

The world-famous Spanish Riding School uses highly trained Lippizan stallions in public performances that demonstrate classical dressage movements and training. During summer there is another chance to take a glimpse of the these precious horses.

Every July mare Lippizan horses along with their offspring are brought from Piper to Vienna to familiarize the foals with their later domain in Vienna’s Spanish Riding School.

For one hour every day the horses are allowed to graze in Vienna’s Castle Garden next to the former imperial palace making it a beloved attraction for both, tourists and inhabitants likewise.

 

The Bone House of Hallstatt

Hallstatt has been an isolated small village for thousands of years. It lies at a small bank between the bottom of a steep hillside and a lake and had been famous for hundreds of years because of its rich salt sources. During winter times the village was not accessible from the outside. In the second half of the last century it became a famous tourist destination. Beside its beauty the village is also known for its very special bone house. For hundreds of years inhabitants of Hallstatt were buried on the very small cemetery in the center. For generations it was custom to excavate the bones after ten to twenty years, bleach them and paint them with ornaments, names and dates of birthday and day of death. More than 600 skulls rest in Hallstatt’s small bone house. It is the only known bone house where skull and bones are ornamented. The last ornament had been done in the 1970s by Heinrich Kirchschlager who died in 1976 and ornamented the skull of his father. Today it still would be allowed for the inhabitants to arrange such an after‐death ritual (they have to include this in their last will) but the tradition seem to be forgotten and none of today’s inhabitants (around 700 people) knows the ancient tradition of this cult, so the bone house more and more becomes a tourist attraction…

Balkan Nights

For a while now I have been working on a story about the Ex-Yugoslavian community in Vienna, focusing on all phases of people’s everyday life as well as religious and cultural aspects. Of course, this also includes the typical bars with live music and a lot of meat to eat…

Here are a couple of images from a recent visit to one of these bars in Vienna, the Café Sezam.

 

A customer is dancing to live music in Café Sezam, located near the so-called “Balkan Mile” in the 16th district. 

A singer from Serbia in Café Sezam. 

Customers of Café Sezam enjoy a plate full of meat. 

Café Sezam bar owner Murat Ladjar, originally coming from Novi Pazar, is showing off his Tito tattoo. 

The photographer in the middle.

Silence

All photographs below were taken at St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna, Austria. 

The Belvedere

The first snow of 2017 has finally come to Vienna.

Belvedere. Vienna, Austria.

Happy New Year 2017

Happy New Year 2017 to everyone. May all your dreams come true. Explore. Dream. Discover!!!!

“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that never have been…”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Dachstein

View of Mount Dachstein from Lake Gossau. 

The Swan

Toplitzsee (Lake Toplitz), Austria.

Krampus

Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure – half-goat, half-demon – who literally beats people into being nice and not naughty.

Krampus was created as a counterpart to kindly St. Nicholas, who rewarded children with sweets. Krampus, in contrast, would swat “wicked” children and take them away to his lair.

According to folklore, Krampus purportedly shows up in towns the night before December 6, known as Krampusnacht, or Krampus Night. December 6 also happens to be Nikolaustag, or St. Nicholas Day.

A more modern take on the tradition in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic involves drunken men dressed as devils, who take over the streets for a Krampuslauf—a Krampus Run of sorts, when people are chased through the streets by the “devils.”

All photos: Michael Biach

Text source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131217-krampus-christmas-santa-devil/

Entering the Cave

“The Cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek”

Subterranean Vienna

The river “Wien” beneath the inner city of Vienna.