Vienna

=== Early history===
Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when [[Celts]] settled the site on the Danube.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Vienna – History {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Vienna/History |access-date=12 November 2021 |newspaper=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |archive-date=28 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628234651/https://www.britannica.com/place/Vienna/History |url-status=live }}</ref> In 15 BC, the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] fortified the frontier city they called [[Vindobona]] to guard the empire against [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribes]] to the north.

[[File:Canabae legionis Vindobona.jpg|thumb|Overview of the Roman legion settlement [[Vindobona]] in the center of today's Vienna]]

Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk [[Coloman of Stockerau|Saint Colman]] (or Koloman, Irish ''Colmán'', derived from ''colm'' "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and [[Saint Fergil]] (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great [[Schottenstift]] monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.

In 976, [[Leopold I, Margrave of Austria|Leopold I of Babenberg]] became count of the [[Bavarian Ostmark|Eastern March]], a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]]. This initial district grew into the [[List of rulers of Austria|duchy of Austria]]. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, [[Henry II, Duke of Austria]] moved the Babenberg family residence from [[Klosterneuburg]] in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lingelbach |first=William E. |title=The History of Nations: Austria-Hungary |publisher=P. F. Collier & Son Company |location=New York |year=1913 |pages=91–92 |asin=B000L3E368}}</ref>

In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the [[Habsburg dynasty]]. It eventually grew to become the ''de facto'' capital of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. [[Hungary]] occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Christian forces twice stopped [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 [[Siege of Vienna (1529)|siege of Vienna]] and the 1683 [[Battle of Vienna]]. The [[Great Plague of Vienna]] ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.<ref>
{{cite book |last=Spielman |first=John Philip |title=The city & the crown: Vienna and the imperial court, 1600–1740 |publisher=Purdue University Press |location=West Lafayette, Indiana |year=1993 |isbn=1-55753-021-1 |page=141}}
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