Vienna, the capital of Austria, was the residence of the Habsburg monarchs for several centuries and the center of an empire that around 1900 had more than 50 million inhabitants. See austria-hungary. The various nationalities in this multinational empire, among them Austrians, Slavs, Italians, and Hungarians, all contributed to what are today known as Viennese cuisine and Viennese sweets. While Vienna is nowadays widely known as the capital of cakes, confections, ice cream, and coffeehouses, it took quite some time for the city to establish this reputation.
