Austria
An Alpine republic at the heart of old Europe
Austria is a landlocked Alpine country at the crossroads of Central Europe, a land of soaring peaks, baroque cities, and a cultural legacy that once radiated from Vienna across an empire. Home to about 9.2 million people, it pairs spectacular mountain scenery, two-thirds of the country is mountainous, with a refined urban heritage of music, coffee houses, and imperial palaces. As the former seat of the Habsburgs, Austria shaped European history for centuries — today it is a prosperous, neutral republic and a magnet for skiers, hikers, and lovers of Mozart, Mahler, and the Vienna Philharmonic.
The Eastern Alps dominate the west and south, rising to the Grossglockner at 3,798 meters, their valleys carved by glaciers and dotted with lakes and ski resorts. The Danube River flows west to east through the country, past Vienna toward Hungary, draining a fertile lowland in the east where most farming and population concentrate. The climate is alpine in the mountains and temperate continental in the lowlands. A wealthy, export-oriented economy combines machinery, steel, vehicles, and chemicals with tourism, banking, and a strong tradition of small high-quality manufacturers.
The German-speaking heartland of the Habsburg monarchy, Austria stood at the center of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose collapse after World War I left a small republic. Annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938 and occupied by the Allies after 1945, Austria regained full sovereignty in 1955 on the condition of permanent neutrality. It joined the European Union in 1995 and the eurozone, while staying outside NATO. Vienna, long a capital of art, science, and ideas, remains a hub of international diplomacy, hosting United Nations agencies and the OSCE.