A Stone Age sculptor shapes a timeless image of female fecundity in the famous Willendorf Venus

A neolithic herdsman dies high in the Alps - and is perfectly preserved in ice

The swirling decorative arts arts lines of Celtic metalwork at Hallstatt begin a tradition which lives on in illuminated manuscripts and stone Celtic crosses

Leopold, of the Babenberg family, becomes margrave of Austria and founds a dynasty which lasts for three centuries

Count Radbot builds himself a 'hawk's castle' or Habichstburg, near Zurich, from which the Habsburg dynasty takes its name

Vienna is adopted by the Babenberg rulers as the capital city of Austria

Richard I, returning from the Holy Land in disguise, is recognized in an inn near Vienna and is imprisoned until England pays a massive ransom

The Bohemian prince Otakar II, ruler also of Austria, extends his territories after defeating the Hungarians at Kressenbrunn

The period without a German king, known as the Great Interregnum, ends with the election of a Habsburg prince, Rudolf I

At Dürnkrut Rudolf I defeats and kills Otakar II, his rival for Austria - thus bringing the Austrian territories into the Habsburg domain

The Swiss forest districts of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden sign an Everlasting League (in the Rütli meadow) to resist Habsburg domination

The Swiss, defeating the Habsburgs at Morgarten, make lethal use of their halberds - designed to jab, grapple and slash

The leading role of Schwyz in the victory at Morgarten causes the independent cantons to become informally known as the Swiss confederation

Charles IV establishes a permanent group of seven electors - four hereditary German rulers and the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier

The office of Holy Roman emperor becomes a hereditary title within the Habsburg dynasty

Matthias Corvinus begins a long reign which brings Moravia, Silesia and much of Austria within the Hungarian kingdom

Maximilian, heir to Austria, weds Mary, heiress to Burgundy, in the first of the great marriage alliances which form the Habsburg empire

Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, captures Vienna and makes the city his capital

The Fuggers make their first loan to a Habsburg archduke, beginning a profitable link with the dynasty

On the death of Matthias Corvinus, in 1490, the Habsburgs recover Vienna from the Hungarians

Philip, heir to Austria, marries Joanna, a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the second of the great Habsburg marital alliances

The death of Ferdinand II results in Spain becoming part of the Habsburg empire, under the rule of Charles V (as Charles I of Spain)

Charles V borrows 852,000 florins, mainly from the Fuggers, to bribe the seven imperial electors

Hungary is divided, by agreement between the Turkish sultan Suleiman I and the Habsburg ruler Ferdinand I

Charles V abdicates, handing the Netherlands and Spain to his son Philip and the title of Holy Roman emperor to his brother Ferdinand