Vienna Basin

The Vienna Basin (German: Wiener Becken, Czech: Vídeňská pánev, Slovak: Viedenská kotlina) is a sedimentary basin between the Eastern Alps and the Carpathian Mountains.

Geography

The fairly level area has the shape of a spindle, over an area of 50 km (31 mi) by 200 km (120 mi). In the north it stretches up to the Marchfeld plateau beyond the Danube River. In the southeast, the Leitha Mountains separate it from the Little Hungarian Plain. In the west, it borders on the Gutenstein Alps and Vienna Woods mountain ranges of the Northern Limestone Alps. The Danube enters the basin at the Vienna Gate water gap bear Mt. Leopoldsberg, it leaves at Devín Gate in the Little Carpathians east of Hainburg.

From the late 12th century onwards, the fortresses of Wiener Neustadt and Hainburg were erected at the southeastern and eastern rim as a defensive wall against attacks from the Hungarian lands downstream the Danube River. Nevertheless the forces of King Matthias Corvinus entered the Vienna Basin during the Austrian-Hungarian War in 1485 to begin the Siege of Vienna. It was again invaded by Ottoman troops, who besieged the city in 1529 and 1683.

Vienna

Vienna (ⁱ/viˈɛnə/;German: Wien, pronounced [viːn]) is the capital and largest city of Austria, and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of Austria's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Danube

The Danube (/ˈdænjuːb/ DAN-ewb, also known as Donau or Danubio) is Europe's second-longest river, after the Volga River, and also the longest river in the European Union region. It is located in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for 2,860 km (1,780 mi), passing through or touching the border of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea. Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries.

Names and etymology

The Latin name Dānuvius is one of a number of "Old European" river names derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu. Other river names from the same root include the Don, Donets, Dzvina/Duna, Dysna, Dnieper and Dniestr. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu means "fluid, drop", in Avestan, the same word means "river". In the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the mother of Vrtra. It is possible that dānu in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": Dniepr and Dniestr, from Danapris and Danastius, are presumed to continue Scythian *dānu apara "far river" and *dānu nazdya- "near river", respectively.

Lake Neusiedl

Lake Neusiedl (German: Neusiedler See) or Fertő (Hungarian: Fertő tó; Croatian: Nežidersko jezero, Niuzaljsko jezero; Slovene: Nežidersko jezero) is the largest endorheic lake in Central Europe, straddling the Austria-Hungarian border. The lake covers 315 km², of which 240 km² is on the Austrian side and 75 km² on the Hungarian side. The lake's drainage basin has an area of about 1,120 km². From north to south, the lake is about 36 km long, and it is between 6 km and 12 km wide from east to west. On average, the lake's surface is 115.45 m above the Adriatic Sea and the lake is no more than 1.8 m deep.

Water level fluctuations

In the past, rainfall and aridity caused significant floods (which in 1768 enlarged the lake to its maximum documented size of 515 km²) and significant decreases in the lake's level, although frequently there seemed to be no apparent connection with the weather situation.

Bad Vöslau

Bad Vöslau is a spa town in the Lower Austria federal state of Austria. It is also known as the cradle of the Austrian red wine cultivation. Population (2008): 11,190.

Geography

Bad Vöslau is located 35 km south of Vienna.

History

In 1770, the Earl of Fries, whose vineyards were situated around Bad Vöslau, was the first from this region to grow red wine on a large scale. The red wine and the sparkling wine from Bad Vöslau were made famous worldwide by Robert Schlumberger.

In 1954, Bad Vöslau became a city and the brand "Vöslauer Stadtsiegel" was born.

On August 26, 1867, the Treaty of Vöslau was signed between the Kingdom of Greece and the Principality of Serbia.

Populations

References

External links