They’re lifting the roof of the fabled Hotel Sacher in order to insert an entire new floor without disturbing the architectural character. When finished, the hotel will look much as it has for the past 125 or so years, but cast a slightly larger shadow.

The massive steel and glass Haashaus, whose construction a few years ago caused a commotion, now seems the right counterpoint to the gray stone eminence of its Kärntnerstrasse neighbor, towering Stephansdom. The two buildings are separated by a few meters and almost 1,000 years.

Kohlmarkt, which leads from the Graben to the Hofberg, is now pedestrian-only.

In a town that arguably has as much high-brow culture as any, the huge new MuseumsQuartier is a case of the rich getter richer. Surrounded by the same Baroque walls that once enclosed the Imperial Stables, the $130-million attraction is said to be one of the world’s 10 largest cultural complexes, home to major museums, including the Leopold, that features Austrian artists Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Oskar Kokoschka, and the new MUMOK (Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien). But these are just the tip of the Quartier iceberg. Spread around its courtyards are other museums, including one for children, performing arts venues, the Architektur Zentrum Wien, trendy shops, and of course a variety of eating places. Perhaps a fondness for Schiele and Klimt influenced our opinion, but we prefer the Leopold to MUMOK.

Vienna’s central neighborhoods are so spiffed up one could almost make the case that the town has lost some of its “old world” character. Seemingly everywhere are chic new Italian restaurants, all with precious, graphically-correct menus listing various Primi and Secondi Piatti. They could be in San Francisco or London. There seem to be fewer cozy, well-worn, old Vienna Beisl’n serving time-honored dishes such as Tafelsptiz, Schnitzel and Kalbsleber. And the eastern influence in restaurants and taverns offering Gypsy music is simply nowhere to be found, at least in the center. An amazing number of shop windows display mannequins clad in women’s lingerie; skimpy thongs and bras, mostly in red and black.

On the other hand, the cafes are unchanged, with Habsburg-style light fixtures and dark wood paneling, lofty ceilings, big windows, and men waiters in black tie. We renounced the Hotel Sofitel’s over-heated, over-crowded, over-priced (€17) breakfast room and ate each morning at Café Schwarzenberg, Kärntnerring 17. The Frühstück klein (coffee, rolls, butter, jam) was €4.20.

One much-anticipated new attraction fell short of expectations. The stylish Haus der Musik (Öffnungzeiten 10, www.hdm.at, admission: €10) was long on interactive displays but too technical for my taste. The flashy composer displays seemed somewhat superficial with few authentic artifacts, and the free English-language audio-tape distracted from, rather than enhanced, the static exhibits. One clever interactive exhibit, easily the museum’s most popular, allows visitors to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. As the baton slows down or speeds up, so does the on-screen orchestra. But there’s only room for one “maestro” at a time and there was a lengthy queue, even in the dead of winter with only a handful of visitors in the museum. But our negative report is in the minority; Haus der Musik has received much praise and the Austrian Museum Prize.

A better experience was a Vienna institution we had ignored on many previous visits. The several floors and endless galleries of the Dorotheum, (Dorotheergasse 17, www.dorotheum.com), a high-class secondhand store and auction house, are a fascinating reflection of Austrian life, filled with objects from farmhouses to Vienna mansions. Oil paintings that seem to the unpracticed eye worthy of the Kunst Historiches Museum, are tagged with estimated values of from $2,000 to $15,000. One floor displays dozens of plain and painted country-style wooden armoires at about $1,500 to $3,000. Rustic farm tables start around $1,000. Perhaps as many as 500 full-length fur coats, ready for auction that day, carried price tags starting around $700. Only a few blocks away, on Stephansplatz, animal rights protesters appealed to fur-wearing shoppers.
 

Vienna Sightseeing

Virtually all guidebooks identify the city’s major sights: Stephansdom, the Hofberg, Belvedere Palace, Schönbrunn Palace, Kunsthistorisches Museum, etc. Each, of course, is a “must see” and worthy of your time. At the Hofberg, be sure to visit the Schatzkammer and at the Belvedere  — you’ve-seen-the-poster-now-don’t-miss-the-real-thing — Klimt’s famous Der Kuss (The Kiss).
Over the last 18 years we’ve often mentioned our personal favorites but perhaps a few bear repeating. Though a tad creepy, the Capuchins’ Crypt or Kaisergruft, which holds 100-plus fabulously ornate coffins of emperors, empresses and archdukes (but only the bodies are here; the hearts are in the Church of Augustinians and the entrails in the catacombs under St. Stephen’s) is a palpable connection to the days of empire.

Conceived by artists who “seceded” from what they considered false values of the times, the Secession building is a famous symbol of the Jugendstil/Art Nouveau movement. Derided when built in 1898, its dome was compared to a cabbage. In the basement see Klimt’s visual interpretation of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

The most tangible element of Vienna’s greatness is its buildings. One of the most intriguing is the Hundertwasserhaus, an uneven, quirky apartment complex that looks like it could have been concocted by a clever fourth grader. Friedensreich Hundertwasser also designed Vienna’s KunstHaus, which exhibits his work and that of such 20th century artists as Joan Miro, Marc Chagall and Picasso. Hundertwasser, who died in 2000 aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, was a rule-breaker; square corners can be round and places that convention says should be level often are not.

The Flohmarkt, a wild collection of people and central European antiques and curious remnants, makes an ideal Saturday morning stroll.

Several of the world’s greatest musicians and composers came to the end of the road in Vienna. Take the tram to the Zentralfriedhof (main cemetery, Simmeringer Hauptstrasse, section 32A) and visit the graves of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Johann Strauss, and others. Don’t look for Mozart, he’s buried in an unmarked common grave, the whereabouts of his remains are unknown. There is an empty tomb in his honor at St. Mark’s cemetery (3rd dist., Leberstrasse 6-8).

And, finally, we once spent a pleasant hour in the Uhrenmuseum (clock museum).