For more than a thousand years Vienna was the pivotal city in Europe. From the age of the Romans until WWII, its strategic position on the River Danube made it witness to war, intrigue, deceit and struggles for power.

In this new three-part series, writer and broadcaster Simon Sebag Montefiore tells the story of an extraordinary city, through the Habsburgs who ruled it - and through those who tried to take it from them.

Home to the Holy Roman Emperors and the target of Ottoman aggression, Vienna is a city that nurtured Gothic architecture and Baroque music. This is a story in which Napoleon, Hitler, Mozart, Strauss, Freud, Stalin and Klimt all played their part.