DANUBE RIVER FACTS & FIGURES
Length: Approximately 1,785 miles / 2,872 kilometers
Source: Donaueschingen, Germany, in the Black Forest
Mouth: In the Danube Delta of Romania, at the Black Sea
Oldest Trade Routes
Ancient Greeks navigated up the Danube from the Black Sea, as far as the Iron Gate. Later, river transport was developed by the Romans; many cities along the Danube began as Roman military outposts. In medieval times, goods were moved either by boat or barge, or along its banks, fostering development of the Habsburg and Hungarian empires.
Countries
The Danube flows through ten modern-day European nations: Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Ukraine, and Moldova
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Danube River Region
- Austria: Historic Centre of Salzburg; Schönbrunn Palace; Wachau Cultural Landscape; Historic Centre of Vienna
- Czech Republic: Historic Centre of Cesky Krumlov; Historic Centre of Prague
- Germany: Old Town of Regensburg
- Hungary: Budapest / Danube Banks; Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae)
- Romania: Danube Delta; Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania
Locks Along the Danube River: 16
Key Cities Along or Near the Danube River
The Danube River flows directly through many significant European cities, including four national capitals – Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary) and Belgrade (Serbia); other key cities are located nearby.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DANUBE RIVER
Early Civilizations Along the Danube
Some of the earliest human cultures on Earth were sited in the Danube basin, including such Neolithic peoples as the Linear Pottery and Vinča cultures. By the first millennium BC, ancient Greeks explored and traded along the lower Danube as far as the Iron Gate.
Roman Empire
Under Julius Caesar, Rome expanded its reach along the Danube (Davinius); Roman ships patrolled its waters, and settlements grew out of Roman military posts – Aquincum (Budapest), Singidunum (Belgrade), Sexantaprista (Ruse), and Vindobona (Vienna).
Medieval Period
After the fall of the Roman Empire, castles and fortresses were built along the Danube by Charlemagne (Werfenstein, 9th century) and other rulers throughout the Middle Ages, as various kingdoms merged into Austria’s Habsburg Empire by the 14th century.
Imperial Period
Between the 14th and 19th centuries, the Ottoman Turks struggled with the Hungarian and later Austrian (Habsburg) Empires for control of the Danube; the river formed the Ottoman Empire's northern border for centuries.
20th Century
With the breakup of both the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires after World War I, the upheaval of World War II, the Cold War, the Balkan wars and the formation of the European Union, the Danube region saw many changes across the decades.
Geopolitical & Economic Importance Today
Today, with its borders generally settled, the Danube River is an important transport route for the whole of Europe, and is designated as "Corridor VII" of the European Union. Since the opening of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal and the Danube-Black Sea Canal, the Danube links the North Sea and western Europe with the ports of the Black Sea.
THE DANUBE RIVER IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
Over the centuries, the civilizations along the Danube River have contributed mightily to some of the most significant artistic movements in European history – and the river itself has inspired a wide range of works across the artistic spectrum.
Art
The Danube region has spawned many artistic works and movements across the centuries, ranging from the religious art of the Middle Ages, to painting and sculpture of the Renaissance period. Most notable are the painters of the “Danube School” of landscape painting, who emerged during the first three decades of the 16th century, primarily in the Danube Valley in Austria and Bavaria – including Albrecht Altdorfer (Regensburg), Jörg Breu the Elder (Augsburg) and Wolf Huber (Passau). They were among the earliest to engage in pure landscape painting, and employed a highly expressive style.
Music, Opera and Dance
There are no less than five cities along the Danube where many of the world’s greatest composers of the last three centuries lived and worked at some point in their lives. A Mozart fan could trace his life and career from his birthplace in Salzburg, to one of several Vienna apartments he lived in (and his grave in St. Mark’s Cemetery), to the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Don Giovanni premiered, to Bratislava, where he performed as a child, and to Budapest, where his musical stamp is everywhere. The river itself has directly inspired works like “Waltz King” Johann Strauss II’s On the Beautiful Blue Danube and The Waves of the Danube by Romanian composer Ion Ivanovici.
Literature
Books inspired by or featuring the Danube run the gamut from early 20th-century fiction such as Jules Verne’s posthumously published novel The Danube Pilot (Le Pilote du Danube), and Algernon Blackwood’s supernatural story set on the Danube, The Willows; to British author/adventurer Patrick Leigh Fermor’s account of the Danube leg of his 1930s journey across Europe by foot, Between the Woods and the Water.
Cultural Institutions
A wealth of universities, monasteries, libraries, museums of art and history, orchestras, opera and theatre companies, and other key cultural institutions have thrived – many of them for centuries – along the Danube River… both in major cities like Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest, as well as in less populated areas along the river, like Melk Abbey in Austria’s Wachau Valley. A few examples follow: