If you're smitten by the rich cultural tapestry woven through Europe’s history, "Mittel Europa" offers a beautifully illustrated journey that transcends mere aesthetics. Chronicling the variety of styles inherent to the old Austro-Hungarian Empire cities, the book serves as a time machine to the opulent and pragmatic expressions of a region reborn. It's more than a visual feast; it's a resonant homage to the enduring influence of European design.

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In this volume, the authors of many acclaimed books on style, including the "Essence of Style" books turn their attentions to the lands east of the Danube, and create "Mittel Europa" - an imaginary country with a gloriously real tradition of architecture and design. This is the heart of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, and its major cities are Vienna, Prague and Budapest - undoubtedly among the world's most beautiful. We travel with the authors to these quintessential Old World cities and the magnificent countryside to discover in the architecture, interiors and folk arts of the region a thriving design tradition that the 20th century once threatened to extinguish, but that now promises to enrich the decorative arts throughout the World. This book reflects an impressive variety of style and design, from the Baroque opulence of the Habsburgs to the rural simplicity of Slovakian peasants, from the bourgeois respectability of Biedermeier furniture to the revolutionary stylistic upheavals of the Jugendstil, the Vienna Secession, the Wiener Werkstatte, Czech Cubism and other expressions of the modern sensibility. Suzanne Slesin is the assistant editor of the Home section of the "New York Times". Stafford Cliff is a design consultant in London. Daniel Rozensztroch and Gilles de Chabaneix live in Paris.

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