Sights in Vienna
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Römer Museum – Hoher Markt
Who knows what the Romans would make of their former outpost today being hidden beneath a restaurant on Hoher Markt, but the small expanse of Roman ruins dating from the 1st to the 5th century are thought to be part of the officers’ quarters of the Roman legion camp at Vindobona. You can see crumbled walls and tiled floors and a small but selective exhibit on artefacts found during the excavations. The ruins are part of the ‘Wien Museum’ municipal museum ensemble of Vienna.
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Roman Ruins – Michaelerplatz
Ringed by gorgeous architecture, Michaelerplatz is centred on Roman ruins that are reputed to have been a brothel for soldiers. This cobblestoned circular ‘square’ is often packed with snap-happy travellers, ticket touts and Fiaker (horse-drawn carriages), and on hot summer days the throng of people and the smell of Pferdekacke (horse crap) can be overwhelming. Notwithstanding the crowds, and the experience of Vienna lifted from the pages of a travel brochure in pungent Odorama, Michaelerplatz is one of the prettiest squares in the city.
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Schubert Sterbewohnung
Here, in his brother’s apartment, Franz Schubert spent his dying days (40 to be precise) in 1828. While dying of either typhoid fever or syphilis he continued to compose, scribbling out a string of piano sonatas and his last work, Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock). The apartment (Schubert’s Death Apartment) is fairly bereft of personal effects but does document these final days with some interesting Schubi knick-knacks and sounds.
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Globenmuseum
Part of the Nationalbibliothek (National Library) collection of museums, this small museum situated inside a former palace (Palais Mollard) is dedicated to cartography. Among the collection of 19th-century globes and maps are a couple of gems a few centuries older. Look for the globe made for Emperor Karl V by Mercator in 1541. An interactive model of this alongside the real one allows you to zoom in on the 16th-century world for close-ups that get a little rough.
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Johann Strauss Residence
Strauss the Younger called Praterstrasse 54 home from 1863 to 1878 and composed the waltz, ‘The Blue Danube’, under its high ceilings. Inside you’ll find an above-average collection of Strauss and ballroom memorabilia, including an Amati violin said to have belonged to him and oil paintings from his last apartment, which was destroyed during WWII. The rooms are bedecked in period furniture from Strauss’ era. The residence is a municipal museum.
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Schubert Geburtshaus
The house where Schubert was born in 1797, in the kitchen, was known at that time as Zum roten Krebsen (The Red Crab), but Schubert probably didn’t remember much about that – he and his family crawled off to greater things when he was five. Apart from his trademark glasses, the house is rather short on objects. But ‘Schubertologists’ might like to trek here, especially to catch the occasional concert. Bizarrely, a couple of rooms of the house are given over to Adalbert Stifter (1805–68) and his Biedermeier paintings. Apart from being born into the same epoch (more an achievement of their mothers than the men of arts), the two men had absolutely nothing to do with each…
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Burgkapelle
The Burgkapelle (Royal Chapel) originally dates from the 13th century and received a Gothic makeover from 1447 to 1449, but much of this disappeared during the baroque fad. The vaulted wooden statuary survived and is testament to those Gothic days. This is where the Vienna Boys’ Choir Mass takes place every Sunday at 9.15am between September and June. The chapel is sometimes closed to visitors in July and August, so check ahead in those months.
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Gasometer
These four round, brownstone gas containers, measuring 75m tall and each big enough to house the Riesenrad, supplied gas to the city from 1899 to 1969. Today they have been redeveloped into 615 apartments, a students’ hostel, an adjacent event hall and a cinema, but it’s the fairly average shopping complex that predominates. Four different architectural groups were involved in this project for urban renewal, one for each gasometer and each with an atrium.
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Ankeruhr
Vienna’s oldest square (once the centre of the Roman outpost) is home to the Ankeruhr (Anker Clock), an art-nouveau masterpiece created by Franz von Matsch in 1911 and named after the Anker Insurance Co, which commissioned it. Over a 12-hour period, figures slowly pass across the clock face, indicating the time against a static measure showing the minutes. Figures range from Marcus Aurelius (the Roman emperor who died in Vienna in AD 180) to Josef Haydn, with Eugene of Savoy, Maria Theresia and others in between. Details of who’s who are on a plaque on the wall below. People flock here at noon, when all the figures trundle past in succession and organ music from the…
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Beethoven Pasqualatihaus
Beethoven made the 4th floor of this house his residence from 1804 to 1814 (he apparently occupied around 80 places in his 35 years in Vienna, but thankfully not all of them are museums!) and during that time composed Symphonies 4, 5 and 7 and the opera Fidelio, among other works. His two rooms (plus another two from a neighbouring apartment) have been converted into a museum, which is lightly filled with photos, articles and a handful of his personal belongings. The house is named after its long-time owner Josef Benedikt Freiherr von Pasqualati.
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Donauturm
At 252m the Danube Tower in Donaupark is Vienna’s tallest structure – next highest is the Millennium Tower at 202m. Its revolving restaurant at 170m allows fantastic panoramic views of the city and beyond – the food tends to be tried and trusted Viennese favourites. Tickets covering entrance to the Donauturm and Riesenrad cost for adult/child €11.40/5.90. The adventurous can bungee jump off the side of the tower – see the website for details.
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Ankeruhr
The picturesque Ankeruhr was created by Franz von Matsch in 1911 and commissioned by the Anker Insurance Co. Over a 12-hour period, figures such as Josef Haydn and Maria Theresia slowly pass across the clock face – details of who’s who are outlined on a plaque on the wall below. Join the mass of tourists at noon when all the figures trundle past in turn, and organ music from the appropriate period is piped out.
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Hofpavillon Hietzing
Built between 1898 and 1899 by Otto Wagner as part of the public transport system, the Hofpavillon Hietzing was originally designed as a private station for the imperial court. The elaborate wood-panelled interior is suitably regal and was designed by Wagner in conjunction with Josef Olbrich. Its white facade, decorated with wrought ironwork, is easily spotted just east of the U4 Hietzing stop. It is in poor shape and closed for renovation.
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Hermesvilla
The Hermesvilla was commissioned by Franz Josef I and presented to his wife as a gift. Built by Karl von Hasenauer between 1882 and 1886, with Klimt and Makart on board as interior decorators, the villa is plush – it’s more a mansion than simply a ‘villa’. Empress Elisabeth’s bedroom is well over the top, with the walls and ceiling covered in motifs from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hermesvilla is a municipal museum.
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Wiener Kriminalmuseum
The Vienna Crime Museum is another interesting chapter in the Viennese obsession with death. It takes a tabloid-style look at crimes and criminals in Austria and dwells on murders in the last 100 years or so with particularly grisly relish; there are skulls of earlier criminals, and even an 18th-century head pickled in a jar. Other displays include death masks of convicted murderers and weapons supposedly used to carry out the murders.
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Friedhof Der Namenlosen
This ‘Cemetery of the Nameless’, situated on the outskirts of Vienna alongside the Danube, was established in 1900 by volunteers to bury the grey, unknown dead (often suicides or accident victims) who washed up on the shores of the blue Danube. Fans of the film Before Sunrise will recognise it as one of the places where the two protagonists Céline and Jesse spend time before destiny takes them to other places, other callings.
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Servitenkirche
Dominating the Serviten quarter – a small confluence of cobblestone streets lined with bars, restaurants and shops a few blocks from the Ringstrasse – the Servitenkirche was built in 1677 and is the only church outside the Innere Stadt to survive the second Turkish siege of 1683. Its baroque interior and oval nave were inspired by the Karlskirche, but unfortunately it’s only open for Mass (see the website); outside of this you’ll have to make do with peering through iron railings. The adjoining monastery is an oasis of calm, in particular its inner courtyard (entry is through the door on the left).
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Holocaust-Denkmal
The focal point of Judenplatz is the Holocaust-Denkmal, a pale, bulky memorial to the 65,000 Austrian Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Designed by British sculptor Rachel Whiteread and unveiled in 2000, the ‘nameless library’ – a structure in the shape of a library where the spines of books face inwards – represents the untold stories of Holocaust victims and has the names of Austrian concentration camps written across its base.
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Schmetterlinghaus
Sharing the Habsburg’s personal Jugendstil glasshouse (1901) with the Palmenhaus bar, the Schmetterlinghaus (Butterfly House) is for the butterfly-mad only. There are hundreds of butterflies and the shop stocks a great range of butterfly paraphernalia, but the air is hot and unbearably humid, the species range fairly limited and it’s quite a small display area. It’s located in the Burggarten, directly behind the Neue Burg.
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Kirche Zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit
The stack of concrete blocks that form the Kirche zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit (Holy Trinity Church) is an unusual work of art. Some will find this industrial piece with little warmth exceptionally ugly, while others will see it as a triumph of the contemporary over conformity. But there’s no doubting its powerful presence. It’s more commonly known as ‘Wotrubakirche’ after its architect, Fritz Wotruba, who completed it in 1976.
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Lainzer Tiergarten
At 25 sq km, the Lainzer Zoo is the largest (and wildest) of Vienna’s city parks. The ‘zoo’ refers to the abundant wild boar, deer, woodpeckers and squirrels that freely inhabit the park, and the famous Lipizzaner horses that summer here. Apart from the extensive walking possibilities through lush woodland, attractions of the park include the Hubertus-Warte (508m), a viewing platform on top of Kaltbründlberg.
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Dom- & Diözesanmuseum
The Cathedral and Diocesan Museum of Vienna is a treasure trove of religious art pieces spanning a period of more than 1000 years. The collection is blessed with some extraordinary articles – such as the earliest European portrait, that of Duke Rudolph IV (1360), and two Syrian glass vessels (1280–1310) thought to be among the oldest glass bottles in the world – making this museum a must for those interested in religious art.
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Stadtpark & Johann Strauss Denkmal
Opened to the public in 1862, the Stadtpark (City Park) is an enjoyable recreational spot with winding paths and a pond – it’s great for strolling or relaxing in the sun and a favourite lunchtime escape for Innere Stadt workers. The park spans the Wien River, which empties into the Danube Canal, and part of it extends into Landstrasse. Of the several statues inhabiting the park (including Schindler, Bruckner and Schubert), the most recognisable is the Johann Strauss Denkmal, a golden statue of Johann Strauss the Younger under a white arch.
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Stephansdom Katakomben
The area on Stephansplatz around the cathedral was originally a graveyard – making it the ‘dead centre’ of Vienna in a very literal sense. But with plague and influenza epidemics striking Europe in the 1730s, Karl VI ordered the graveyard to be closed and henceforth Vienna buried its dead beneath Stephansdom in the ‘New Tombs’, which in the 19th century became more wistfully known as Katakomben (catacombs).
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Museum für Völkerkunde
You can impress your children by taking them to this museum. Revamped a few years ago, it exudes a lightness of mood and has a thoughtful use of space that adults will appreciate too. Exhibits are on non-European cultures and divided into regions and nationalities, covering such countries as China, Japan and Korea, and also the Polynesian, Native American and Inuit cultures.
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