Austria is a central European country with a population of about 8 million. Once the center of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria was reduced to a small republic after its defeat in World War I. Today, Austria is a prosperous, democratic country famed for its Alpine scenery.

During the Counter Reformation, the Austrian Habsburgs were the leading political representatives of Roman Catholicism in its conflict with the Protestant Reformation in Central Europe, and Protestantism never gained a foothold in Austria.

Thus, unlike its neighbors Germany and Switzerland, which are divided almost equally between Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Austria is predominantly Catholic.

In 1938 the Jewish population of Austria numbered more than 200,000, most of whom lived in Vienna. But the community was almost wiped out by emigration and the Holocaust. By 1990 the community amounted to about 7,000 and consisted largely of postwar immigrants instead of Austrian-born Jews.

Austria is home to many important sacred sites, the vast majority of which are naturally Catholic, and include abbeys, convents, cathedrals, and shrines. There are also a number of synagogues, Jewish museums and Holocaust memorials in Austria, particularly in Vienna.