City Walk: Between Ostarrichi and the Bosporus. Vienna, Byzantium, the Crusades & the Global Middle Ages

Vienna already in medieval times was situated at the intersection of ancient transregional routes. Pilgrims, crusaders and merchants passed the city on their way into Southeastern Europe and Constantinople along the Danube. Two imperial princesses from Byzantium settled in Vienna in the 12th and 13th century as wives of Dukes of Austria. Steppe nomadic groups such as the Huns, the Avars, the Magyars, the Cumans and the Mongols created connections to the wider worlds of Central Eurasia. Commodities, manuscripts and other objects found their way to the Danube from across the medieval world. This tour explores the traces of the Global Middle Ages in Vienna's historical centre from Late Antiquity into the 15th century.