Unit 8. New ideas, new architecture.
Part 1. Warming up.
A. Keywords.

imperial, paneling, frame, ceiling, spire.
Vocabulary.

imperial, coffer, ornate, opulent, guilder, paneling, fresco, chandelier, spire, catacomb, urn, jumble,
Versailles, Schonbrunn Palace, Rococo, Great Gallery, St.Stephen's Cathedral, Imperial Burial Vaults, Kapuziner Church, Hofburg, Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance.
You're going to hear a description about the most outstanding monuments in Vietnna—— a royal city, listen carefully and supply the missing words.
For hundreds of years, it has been an imperial capital of Europe.
Its ruler raided the Western world to enrich the coffers of the empire.
They spent their wealth on magnificent palaces and grand public buildings.
They built an opera house that rivals any in Europe.
They founded great museums and libraries.
They constructed massive, ornate government buildings, and they raised opulent palaces for themselves.
A tour of Vienna is a tour of these monuments to excess.
Take Schonbrunn Palace, for instance.
The Palace's Million Room, named after the cost of decorations, 1 million guilders, is a Rococo masterpiece.
Inset in the panelling are 260 rare miniatures of Indo-Persian heritage.
The frames are rare gold leaf, and the panelling is precious wood.
The Great Gallery, modeled after a room in Versailles near Paris, has 35-foot ceilings graced with giant frescoes boasting of the power of the Austrian army.
Massive crystal chandeliers reflect in the wall of mirrors, trimmed in gold leaf.
The list of other sights to see in Vienna is long.
St.Stephen's Cathedral dominates the skyline of Old Town, the medieval section of the city.
Its main spire soars 450 feet into the sky, and the top can be reached by climbing 343 steps.
The cathedral was begun in the 12th century.
In the catacombs beneath the cathedral are copper urns containing the intestines of deceased Habsburgs.
Their bodies are in ornate caskets in the Imperial Burial Vaults in the Kapuziner Church a few blocks away, and can be visited.
The old town is a fascinating place to walk.
Most of the narrow streets have been turned into pedestrian malls lined with shops, coffee houses and restaurants.
In one section, the original Roman ruins under the streets can be seen by going to an underground museum.
The Natural History Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts occupy matching buildings on Maria Theresa Plaza, a small square across from the Hofburg.
Hofburg is the Habsburg's in-town palace. It is big, with 2,600 rooms, but not ornate.
Hofburg is a jumble of buildings constructed at different times and different styles from Baroque, Gothic and Classic to Renaissance and Rococo.
Its oldest parts date from the 13th century, but most were built from the 1700s on.