was living in the house at number fifty-four when he wrote the waltz that Austria has treated as a ever since.
The premiere in 1867 was a flop. A male choir performed it, with a mocking text about the miseries of the age, and the audience just shrugged. It only caught on a few months later, when Strauss played a purely orchestral version in Paris, and from that moment it travelled the world.
The fact that this music came to life right here says something about the neighbourhood. sat between the old city centre and the , Vienna's great park and amusement grounds, and the whole street was lined with dance halls and concert venues where crowds headed in the evenings.
Today the apartment is a small museum, and in one of the rooms you'll find the original handwritten score of the waltz.
From here the route leads us back into the neighbourhood, towards the streets where daily life played out.
Sources. Story: Wien Geschichte Wiki, Stadt Wien; Wien Museum, Johann Strauss Wohnung Photos: Wien 02 Praterstraße, Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
