Roavina

City guide · Austria

Vienna

A photograph of Vienna
Photograph · Andrzej Otrębski · CC BY-SA 4.0

Vienna is 414.78 km² holding 2,028,499 people, and almost everything a visitor comes for sits inside a single ring road less than a kilometre across. The Innere Stadt — the 1st district — is the medieval core, and the Ringstrasse that surrounds it was built in the second half of the nineteenth century on the line of the demolished bastions. The 371-hectare historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001; it was on the endangered list from 2017 to 2026. The wider urban area holds 2,223,236 people and the metropolitan area 2,890,577, which makes Vienna the tenth largest city in Europe and by a long way the largest in Austria.

Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor

Practical information

Language spoken
German
German is Austria's official language; Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian also have official status in some regions
Dialling code
+43 1
Vienna landlines; drop the leading 0 of 01 when calling from abroad
Currency
Euro (€, EUR)
Austria introduced euro banknotes and coins in 2002
Emergency number
112
One number across the country; 144 reaches an ambulance directly
Plug type
Not recorded
No verified national official source was found
Tap water
Safe to drink
Austria's national tourism authority states that tap water is drinkable in every region

Turn this list into a plan

Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.

Plan Vienna

Planning a visit

Suggested stay
3–4 days
Getting around
U-Bahn and tram
  1. January: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  2. February: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  3. March: good time to visit
  4. April: good time to visit
  5. May: best time to visit
  6. June: best time to visit
  7. July: good time to visit
  8. August: good time to visit
  9. September: best time to visit — current month
  10. October: good time to visit
  11. November: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  12. December: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  • Best time
  • Good time
  • Viable with trade-offs
  • Difficult conditions

Sources

Top things to see

Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.

  1. St. Stephen's Cathedral St. Stephen's Cathedral
    02 1 hour

    St. Stephen's Cathedral

    Stephansdom

    St. Stephen’s Cathedral is Vienna’s working metropolitan church and the defining landmark of Stephansplatz. Its story reaches back to a foundation in 1137, while Gothic rebuilding began in 1359 under Duke Rudolf IV.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  2. Belvedere Belvedere
    03 2 hours

    Belvedere

    Belvedere is Prince Eugene of Savoy’s former summer residence, not one palace but a carefully staged Baroque ensemble in Vienna’s Landstraße district.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Landstraße
  3. Vienna State Opera house Vienna State Opera house
    04 45 min

    Vienna State Opera house

    Wiener Staatsoper

    The Vienna State Opera was hated when it opened and it killed both its architects.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  4. Kunsthistorisches Museum Kunsthistorisches Museum
    05 3 hours

    Kunsthistorisches Museum

    Kunsthistorisches Museum is Vienna’s imperial art museum, built as a purpose-made home for the Habsburg collections on Maria-Theresien-Platz. Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer designed it between 1871 and 1891, and it opened in 1891.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  5. Albertina Albertina
    06 2 hours

    Albertina

    Albertina is a museum in a former Habsburg palace above Albertinaplatz, immediately behind Vienna’s State Opera.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  6. Wiener Riesenrad Wiener Riesenrad
    07 30 min

    Wiener Riesenrad

    Riesenrad

    Wiener Riesenrad is Vienna’s historic giant wheel at the entrance to the Prater, built in 1897 for Emperor Franz Joseph’s Golden Jubilee. Harry Hitchins and Hubert Cecil Booth designed it, and Walter Basset Bassett built it.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Leopoldstadt
  7. MuseumsQuartier MuseumsQuartier
    08 30 min

    MuseumsQuartier

    The MuseumsQuartier is one of the largest cultural districts in the world by area, roughly 90,000 square metres, built inside the former imperial court stables, the Hofstallungen, originally constructed in the early eighteenth century under plans associated with Johann Bernhard…

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Neubau
  8. Vienna City Hall Vienna City Hall
    09 20 min

    Vienna City Hall

    Rathaus

    The Rathaus is a Gothic cathedral that turned out to be a town hall, and it is the largest secular building on the Ringstrasse.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  9. Karlskirche Karlskirche
    10 1 hour

    Karlskirche

    Karlskirche is Vienna’s great Baroque church on the south side of Karlsplatz, but its identity is unusually theatrical: a classical portico sits between two monumental spiral-relief columns and two tower pavilions, beneath a 70-metre dome.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Wieden
  10. Natural History Museum Natural History Museum
    11 2 hr 30 min

    Natural History Museum

    Naturhistorisches Museum

    Vienna’s Natural History Museum is a purpose-built nineteenth-century house of science on Maria-Theresien-Platz, not merely a container for specimens.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  11. Leopold Museum Leopold Museum
    12 2 hours

    Leopold Museum

    The Leopold Museum houses the collection assembled over five decades by the ophthalmologist and collector Rudolf Leopold, sold to the Austrian state in 1994 and opened to the public in this purpose-built home inside the MuseumsQuartier in 2001.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Neubau
  12. Spanish Riding School Spanish Riding School
    13 1 hr 30 min

    Spanish Riding School

    Spanische Hofreitschule

    The Spanish Riding School is the world's oldest institution still practising classical Baroque horsemanship in its original form, tracing its riding tradition back to 1572 and its Lipizzaner breeding programme to the Habsburgs' interest in Spanish-bred horses.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  13. Hundertwasserhaus Hundertwasserhaus
    14 15 min

    Hundertwasserhaus

    Hundertwasserhaus is a private residential complex in Vienna’s 3rd district, Landstraße, at the corner of Kegelgasse and Löwengasse. Friedensreich Hundertwasser created the artistic concept with architect Joseph Krawina, and construction took place from 1983 to 1985.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Landstraße
  14. Musikverein Musikverein
    15 1 hour

    Musikverein

    Musikverein is Vienna’s celebrated concert building on Karlsplatz, opened on 6 January 1870 and designed by Danish architect Theophil Hansen in a neoclassical style inspired by a Greek temple.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  15. Naschmarkt Naschmarkt
    16 1 hour

    Naschmarkt

    The Naschmarkt is Vienna's largest and oldest continuously running market, a roughly 1.5-kilometre strip of stalls running along the covered-over bed of the Wien River between Karlsplatz and Kettenbrückengasse.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Mariahilf
  16. Austrian National Library Austrian National Library
    17 45 min

    Austrian National Library

    Prunksaal der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek

    The Austrian National Library's Prunksaal, the State Hall, is the Baroque core of the former imperial court library, built between 1723 and 1726 by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach, son of the architect who designed the Karlskirche.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  17. Austrian Parliament Building Austrian Parliament Building
    18 1 hour

    Austrian Parliament Building

    Parlament

    The Austrian Parliament Building is Vienna’s working national legislature, designed by Theophil Hansen in a deliberately Greek-inspired style. Construction ran from 1874 to 1883, when classical forms were used to express the building’s association with democratic government.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  18. Secession Building Secession Building
    19 45 min

    Secession Building

    Secession

    Vienna’s Secession Building is the purpose-built headquarters of an artist association that broke from established institutions in 1897. Joseph Maria Olbrich designed the white exhibition hall in 1897–98.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  19. Imperial Treasury Imperial Treasury
    20 2 hours

    Imperial Treasury

    Kaiserliche Schatzkammer

    The Imperial Treasury, the Kaiserliche Schatzkammer, holds the Habsburg dynasty's crown jewels and imperial regalia inside the Hofburg's Schweizerhof, the Swiss Courtyard at the historic core of the palace complex.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  20. Sigmund Freud Museum Sigmund Freud Museum
    21 1 hour

    Sigmund Freud Museum

    The Sigmund Freud Museum occupies the apartment and consulting rooms at Berggasse 19 in Alsergrund where Sigmund Freud lived and practised from 1891 until June 1938, when he fled Vienna for London after the Nazi annexation of Austria.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Alsergrund
  21. MAK – Museum of Applied Arts MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
    22 2 hours

    MAK – Museum of Applied Arts

    Museum für Angewandte Kunst

    The MAK was the first museum of its kind on the continent, and it was founded to improve manufacturing.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  22. Mumok Mumok
    23 1 hr 30 min

    Mumok

    Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien

    mumok — the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig — is Austria's largest museum of modern and contemporary art, and the darkest building on the MuseumsQuartier plaza by design.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Neubau
  23. Mozarthaus Vienna Mozarthaus Vienna
    24 1 hr 30 min

    Mozarthaus Vienna

    Mozarthaus Vienna, at Domgasse 5 in the Innere Stadt, is the only one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Viennese residences still standing.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  24. Votive Church Votive Church
    25 30 min

    Votive Church

    Votivkirche

    The Votivkirche exists because somebody tried to kill the emperor and failed.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Alsergrund
  25. Donauturm Donauturm
    26 1 hour

    Donauturm

    The Donauturm is the tallest structure in Austria, at 252 m, and it was built as a garden show attraction.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Donaustadt
  26. Burgtheater Burgtheater
    27 1 hour

    Burgtheater

    The Burgtheater is Austria's national theatre and one of the most important German-language stages in the world.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  27. Imperial Crypt Imperial Crypt
    28 45 min

    Imperial Crypt

    Kaisergruft

    The Imperial Crypt is where the Habsburgs are buried, and it is under an ordinary friary church on a shopping street.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  28. Graben Graben
    29 20 min

    Graben

    The Graben is a broad, elongated square in the Innere Stadt, and its name — 'ditch' — records what it once was: the moat of the Roman legionary camp of Vindobona, filled in during the Middle Ages and built over.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  29. Heldenplatz Heldenplatz
    30 20 min

    Heldenplatz

    Heldenplatz is an unfinished square in front of the Hofburg, and it is the most politically loaded piece of ground in Austria.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  30. Café Central Café Central
    31 1 hour

    Café Central

    Café Central is a historic Viennese coffeehouse inside the Palais Ferstel, a Neo-Renaissance building designed by Heinrich von Ferstel. The café opened in 1876 and became one of Vienna’s best-known literary meeting places before the First World War.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  31. Haus der Musik Haus der Musik
    32 2 hours

    Haus der Musik

    The Haus der Musik is a ticketed, interactive sound museum in the Palais Erzherzog Karl on Seilerstatte, a five-minute walk from the Vienna State Opera.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  32. Weltmuseum Wien Weltmuseum Wien
    33 2 hr 30 min

    Weltmuseum Wien

    Weltmuseum

    Weltmuseum Wien occupies the Neue Burg wing of the Hofburg on Heldenplatz and holds Vienna's global ethnographic collections, assembled from Habsburg holdings and expedition material going back to the museum's founding as the Museum für Völkerkunde in 1876.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  33. Belvedere 21 Belvedere 21
    34 1 hr 30 min

    Belvedere 21

    Belvedere 21 is Vienna's museum for contemporary art, housed in a steel-and-glass pavilion in the Schweizergarten, a few hundred metres south of the Baroque Belvedere palace complex it is administratively part of.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Landstraße
  34. Augarten Augarten
    35 1 hour

    Augarten

    Augarten is a public Baroque park in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district, laid out in its present form in the early 18th century and opened to the public by Emperor Joseph II in 1775 — one of the earliest palace gardens…

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Leopoldstadt
  35. Kohlmarkt Kohlmarkt
    36 10 min

    Kohlmarkt

    Kohlmarkt is a short pedestrian shopping street in Vienna's Innere Stadt, running from the Graben to Michaelerplatz, where it ends directly at the Michaelertor, the domed gate into the Hofburg.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  36. Court Chapel Court Chapel
    37 45 min

    Court Chapel

    Hofburgkapelle

    The Hofburgkapelle, or Court Chapel, stands within Vienna's Hofburg Palace complex. It served as the Habsburg imperial family's place of worship and preserves an important connection between court ceremony, religion, and Viennese history.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  37. Ankeruhr Ankeruhr
    38 20 min

    Ankeruhr

    The Ankeruhr is Vienna’s Art Nouveau clock on Hoher Markt, built across the gap between two buildings associated with the Anker Insurance company.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  38. Looshaus Looshaus
    39 20 min

    Looshaus

    Looshaus is Adolf Loos's 1909-1911 commercial and residential building at Michaelerplatz 3, directly opposite the Michaelertor gate of the Hofburg.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  39. Kursalon Vienna Kursalon Vienna
    40 2 hours

    Kursalon Vienna

    Kursalon Hübner

    Kursalon Vienna is an Italian Renaissance Revival building standing at the edge of the Stadtpark in Vienna's Innere Stadt district, built in 1865-67 by architect Johann Garben as a public 'cure hall', a cafe and gathering pavilion meant to draw…

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  40. Bermudadreieck Bermudadreieck
    41 45 min

    Bermudadreieck

    Bermudadreieck is a nightlife district in Vienna's Innere Stadt, centered on the area around Rabensteig, Seitenstettengasse, and Judengasse. The name translates to Bermuda Triangle, referencing how visitors may lose track of time amid its dense concentration of bars and venues.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  41. Äußeres Burgtor Äußeres Burgtor
    42 45 min

    Äußeres Burgtor

    Burgtor

    Äußeres Burgtor, also known locally as Burgtor, is a historic neoclassical gate in central Vienna. The gate belongs to the city’s imperial architectural landscape and marks an important threshold near the Hofburg complex.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  42. Haas House Haas House
    43 10 min

    Haas House

    Haas-Haus

    The Haas-Haus is a curved glass-and-stone office and retail building on Stock-im-Eisen-Platz, directly opposite the main entrance of St. Stephen's Cathedral, designed by Hans Hollein and completed in 1990.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  43. Altes Palmenhaus Altes Palmenhaus
    44 45 min

    Altes Palmenhaus

    Altes Palmenhaus is a historic palm house in Vienna, a building type created for cultivating tropical and subtropical plants in an urban setting. Its name means “Old Palm House,” linking the structure to Vienna’s tradition of displaying exotic flora.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Hietzing
  44. Kuffner observatory Kuffner observatory
    45 45 min

    Kuffner observatory

    Kuffner Sternwarte

    Kuffner Observatory, also called Kuffner Sternwarte, is a historic astronomical observatory in Vienna. Founded through private patronage in the late nineteenth century, it served as an active research institution for decades.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Ottakring
  45. Fillgraderstiege Fillgraderstiege
    46 45 min

    Fillgraderstiege

    Fillgraderstiege is a historic public staircase in Vienna connecting Fillgradergasse with Theobaldgasse between the Mariahilf and Neubau districts. Built in the early twentieth century, it combines a practical pedestrian link with the architectural character of Vienna's urban streets.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Mariahilf
  46. Heiligenkreuzerhof Heiligenkreuzerhof
    47 45 min

    Heiligenkreuzerhof

    Heiligenkreuzerhof is a historic courtyard complex in Vienna's Inner City, situated near Stephansdom. The site derives its name from Heiligenkreuz Abbey, the Cistercian monastery in Lower Austria that has owned the property for centuries.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  47. Wittgenstein House Wittgenstein House
    48 30 min

    Wittgenstein House

    Haus Wittgenstein

    Haus Wittgenstein — also called the Stonborough House — is a modernist house at Kundmanngasse 19 in Vienna's 3rd district, built in 1926-1928 for Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein, sister of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Landstraße
  48. Episcopal Palace Episcopal Palace
    49 45 min

    Episcopal Palace

    Erzbischöfliches Palais

    Episcopal Palace, locally called Erzbischöfliches Palais, is the residence of the Archbishop of Vienna in the historic centre. It is a working ecclesiastical building rather than a conventional museum or sightseeing venue.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  49. Flakturm Augarten (Gefechtsturm) Flakturm Augarten (Gefechtsturm)
    50 45 min

    Flakturm Augarten (Gefechtsturm)

    The Flakturm Augarten (Gefechtsturm) is one of six surviving flak towers built in Vienna during the Second World War. Constructed between 1942 and 1945, these massive reinforced concrete structures served as anti-aircraft gun platforms, command centers, and air-raid shelters.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Leopoldstadt
  50. Donnerbrunnen Donnerbrunnen
    51 45 min

    Donnerbrunnen

    Donnerbrunnen, also called the Providentia Fountain, is a Baroque monument in Neuer Markt. Georg Raphael Donner created the fountain between 1737 and 1739, making it one of Vienna’s important eighteenth-century sculptural works.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  51. Republikdenkmal Republikdenkmal
    52 45 min

    Republikdenkmal

    Denkmal der Republik

    Republikdenkmal, also known as Denkmal der Republik, commemorates the founding of the Austrian Republic in 1918. The monument marks the political transition that followed the end of Habsburg imperial rule and the emergence of republican government.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  52. Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice
    53 45 min

    Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice

    Deserteursdenkmal

    The Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice, known locally as Deserteursdenkmal, is an outdoor memorial in Vienna. It honours people persecuted by Nazi military courts, including deserters and others punished for refusing service or being judged insubordinate.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  53. Trinity column, Radetzkystraße 1, Landstraße Trinity column, Radetzkystraße 1, Landstraße
    54 45 min

    Trinity column, Radetzkystraße 1, Landstraße

    Dreifaltigkeitssäule

    The Dreifaltigkeitssäule, or Trinity Column, stands at Radetzkystraße 1 in Vienna's Landstraße district. This religious monument represents the Holy Trinity and forms part of the city's extensive heritage of plague columns and devotional structures erected across Central Europe.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Landstraße
  54. Burg am Leopoldsberg Burg am Leopoldsberg
    55 45 min

    Burg am Leopoldsberg

    Burg am Leopoldsberg is a historic castle structure on Leopoldsberg, a prominent hill in northern Vienna above the Danube. The elevated setting places the castle within a landscape of river views, wooded slopes and the expanding city below.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Döbling
  55. Friedensbrücke Friedensbrücke
    56 45 min

    Friedensbrücke

    Friedensbrücke, or Peace Bridge, crosses the Danube Canal in Vienna. It is a working urban connection linking parts of the city for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Brigittenau
  56. Hohe Brücke Hohe Brücke
    57 45 min

    Hohe Brücke

    Hohe Brücke is a historic bridge in Vienna. The German name means “High Bridge,” and the structure belongs to the city’s network of crossings, streets and walkways.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  57. Schloss Altmannsdorf Schloss Altmannsdorf
    58 45 min

    Schloss Altmannsdorf

    Altmannsdorfer Schloss

    Schloss Altmannsdorf, also known locally as Altmannsdorfer Schloss, is a historic palace in Vienna’s Altmannsdorf district.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Meidling
  58. Palais Augarten Palais Augarten
    59 5 min

    Palais Augarten

    Augartenpalais

    Palais Augarten is the Baroque palace standing inside Augarten park in Leopoldstadt.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Leopoldstadt
  59. Bergkirche Rodaun Bergkirche Rodaun
    60 45 min

    Bergkirche Rodaun

    Bergkirche Rodaun is a functioning church in Vienna’s Rodaun district. Its name refers to its elevated setting, giving the building a distinctive position within the neighbourhood.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Liesing
  60. Erlöserkirche Erlöserkirche
    61 45 min

    Erlöserkirche

    Erlöserkirche Endresstraße

    Erlöserkirche is a church on Endresstraße in Vienna. Its role is best understood through its place in the city’s neighbourhood religious landscape: it is a church building serving worship and community life, rather than a large museum complex.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Liesing
  61. Chuch of St. John Chuch of St. John
    62 45 min

    Chuch of St. John

    Evang. Johanneskirche

    The Evangelische Johanneskirche, known in English as the Church of St. John, is a Protestant church in Vienna. It serves the Evangelical Lutheran tradition and belongs to the city’s diverse religious and architectural landscape.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Liesing
  62. Johanneskirche Johanneskirche
    63 45 min

    Johanneskirche

    Johanneskirche is a church in Vienna, Austria, serving as a place of Christian worship within the capital’s broad religious and architectural landscape.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Favoriten
  63. Hofmannsthal-Schlössl Hofmannsthal-Schlössl
    64 45 min

    Hofmannsthal-Schlössl

    Hofmannsthal-Schlössl is a historic building in Vienna associated with the von Hofmannsthal family, notable for their cultural significance in Austrian history. The structure represents aristocratic Viennese architecture and serves as a tangible connection to the city's literary and social heritage.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Liesing
  64. Etablissement Gschwandner Etablissement Gschwandner
    65 45 min

    Etablissement Gschwandner

    Ehem. Etablissement Gschwandner

    Etablissement Gschwandner, also known locally as Ehem. Etablissement Gschwandner, is a former entertainment establishment in Vienna.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Hernals
  65. Liesing Aqueduct Liesing Aqueduct
    66 45 min

    Liesing Aqueduct

    Aquädukt Liesing

    The Liesing Aqueduct, known locally as Aquädukt Liesing, is a historic water-bridge structure in Vienna’s twenty-third district, Liesing. It belongs to the city’s wider history of water-management and public engineering, showing how infrastructure can become part of an urban landscape.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Liesing
  66. aqueduct Speising aqueduct Speising
    67 45 min

    aqueduct Speising

    Aquädukt Speising

    Aquädukt Speising is a historic aqueduct in southern Vienna and a tangible example of municipal water engineering.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Liesing
  67. Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial
    68 15 min

    Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial

    Holocaust-Mahnmal

    The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial is a sealed concrete sculpture by the British artist Rachel Whiteread, unveiled on 25 October 2000 on Judenplatz in the Innere Stadt.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  68. Soviet War Memorial Soviet War Memorial
    69 10 min

    Soviet War Memorial

    Heldendenkmal der Roten Armee

    The Soviet War Memorial on Schwarzenbergplatz commemorates the Red Army soldiers killed during the Vienna Offensive of April 1945, and was built and unveiled by Soviet authorities the same year, within months of the city's capture.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Landstraße
  69. Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Heeresgeschichtliches Museum
    70 2 hr 30 min

    Heeresgeschichtliches Museum

    The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, the Museum of Military History, is Austria's oldest purpose-built museum structure, opened in 1891 inside the Arsenal complex as the k.k. Hofwaffenmuseum and renamed to its current form in 1955.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Landstraße
  70. Gasometer Gasometer
    71 1 hour

    Gasometer

    Wiener Gasometer

    The Gasometers are four Victorian gas holders with flats inside them.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Simmering
  71. Karl Marx-Hof Karl Marx-Hof
    72 1 hour

    Karl Marx-Hof

    Karl-Marx-Hof

    Karl-Marx-Hof is a block of council flats 1,100 m long, and it is one of the longest single residential buildings in the world.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Döbling
  72. Pestsäule Pestsäule
    73 10 min

    Pestsäule

    The Pestsäule is a promise made by an emperor who had left town.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  73. Stephansplatz Stephansplatz
    74 20 min

    Stephansplatz

    Stephansplatz is the square at the geographic and historic centre of Vienna, formed around St. Stephen's Cathedral and taking its name directly from it.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  74. Vienna Technical Museum Vienna Technical Museum
    75 4 hours

    Vienna Technical Museum

    Technisches Museum

    The Technisches Museum Wien is Austria's largest museum of technology and industry, on Mariahilfer Straße in the 14th district, Penzing.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Penzing
  75. Stadttempel Stadttempel
    76 45 min

    Stadttempel

    The Stadttempel is Vienna's main synagogue, and it survived 1938 because it is hidden.

    • Notable
    • Place of worship
    • Innere Stadt
  76. Architekturzentrum Wien Architekturzentrum Wien
    77 1 hour

    Architekturzentrum Wien

    The Architekturzentrum Wien, usually shortened to Az W, is Austria's centre for the exhibition and documentation of architecture, inside the MuseumsQuartier in the 7th district.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Neubau
  77. Schloss Wilhelminenberg Schloss Wilhelminenberg
    78 45 min

    Schloss Wilhelminenberg

    Schloss Wilhelminenberg sits on a wooded hill above Ottakring, Vienna's 16th district, built in the 1730s for Field Marshal Guido Starhemberg and later named for Archduchess Wilhelmine, who owned it in the nineteenth century.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Ottakring
  78. Palais Schwarzenberg Palais Schwarzenberg
    79 15 min

    Palais Schwarzenberg

    Palais Schwarzenberg is a Baroque garden palace at the edge of the Belvedere district, begun for Count Heinrich Franz von Mansfeld-Fondi and continued after his death by the Schwarzenberg family, who gave it its present name.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Landstraße
  79. Vienna Museum Vienna Museum
    80 2 hours

    Vienna Museum

    Wien Museum Karlsplatz

    Wien Museum, on Karlsplatz, is Vienna's museum of its own history, tracing the city from the Roman camp of Vindobona through the medieval, Baroque and Ringstrasse periods to the twentieth century.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Wieden
  80. Vienna Künstlerhaus Vienna Künstlerhaus
    81 1 hour

    Vienna Künstlerhaus

    Künstlerhaus Wien

    The Kunstlerhaus is Vienna's oldest surviving purpose-built exhibition hall for the fine arts, standing on Karlsplatz next to the Musikverein.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  81. Winter Palace of Prince Eugene Winter Palace of Prince Eugene
    82 1 hour

    Winter Palace of Prince Eugene

    Winterpalais

    The Winter Palace of Prince Eugene (Winterpalais des Prinzen Eugen) is a Baroque town palace at Himmelpfortgasse 8 in Vienna's first district, built between 1695 and 1724 as the city residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Habsburg field marshal…

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  82. Kirche am Steinhof Kirche am Steinhof
    83 1 hr 30 min

    Kirche am Steinhof

    Otto-Wagner-Kirche

    Kirche am Steinhof is Otto Wagner's Art Nouveau church, built in 1904-1907 as the chapel of the Niederösterreichische Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt für Nerven- und Geisteskranke — the psychiatric hospital on the Steinhof hill, now the Klinik Penzing site — and…

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Penzing
  83. Schottenstift Schottenstift
    84 1 hour

    Schottenstift

    Schottenstift is a working Benedictine abbey on Freyung square in the Innere Stadt, founded in 1155 by Duke Henry II Jasomirgott.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  84. Hermesvilla Hermesvilla
    85 1 hour

    Hermesvilla

    Hermesvilla is a villa built 1882-1886 inside the Lainzer Tiergarten, the walled game reserve on Vienna's western edge, commissioned by Emperor Franz Joseph I as a retreat for Empress Elisabeth ("Sisi").

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Hietzing
  85. Gartenpalais Liechtenstein Gartenpalais Liechtenstein
    86 2 hours

    Gartenpalais Liechtenstein

    Palais Liechtenstein (Gartenpalais)

    The Garden Palace (Gartenpalais Liechtenstein) is the Liechtenstein princely family's Baroque summer residence in Alsergrund, the 9th district, built 1691-1711 for Prince Johann Adam Andreas I of Liechtenstein.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Alsergrund
  86. Palais Coburg Palais Coburg
    87 1 hr 30 min

    Palais Coburg

    Palais Coburg is a Neoclassical palace at Coburgbastei 4 in Vienna's first district, built between 1840 and 1845 for Ferdinand Georg August, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld-Koháry, on top of a surviving bastion of the old city fortifications.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  87. Palais Kinsky Palais Kinsky
    88 30 min

    Palais Kinsky

    Palais Kinsky is a Baroque palace at Freyung 4 in Vienna's first district, built between 1713 and 1716 by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt for Count Philipp Vinzenz Daun, a Habsburg field marshal, and later passed by marriage to the Kinsky…

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  88. Palais Todesco Palais Todesco
    89 15 min

    Palais Todesco

    Palais Todesco is a Ringstrasse-era palace facing the Vienna State Opera across Kärntner Straße, built between 1861 and 1864 by Ludwig Förster and Theophil Hansen for the brothers Eduard and Hermann Todesco, Jewish bankers ennobled by Franz Joseph I as…

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  89. Neugebäude Palace Neugebäude Palace
    90 1 hr 30 min

    Neugebäude Palace

    Schloss Neugebäude

    Neugebäude is a ruined Renaissance palace at Simmering, on Vienna's south-eastern edge, built 1568-1573 for Emperor Maximilian II.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Simmering
  90. Strudlhofstiege Strudlhofstiege
    91 10 min

    Strudlhofstiege

    The Strudlhofstiege is a public outdoor Art Nouveau stairway in Alsergrund, connecting the upper street Strudlhofgasse to the lower Liechtensteinstrasse across a steep slope.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Alsergrund
  91. Globe Museum Globe Museum
    92 1 hr 30 min

    Globe Museum

    Globenmuseum

    The Globe Museum, or Globenmuseum, is a specialist museum in Vienna devoted to globes and related cartographic instruments. Its collection brings geography, astronomy, craftsmanship, and the history of knowledge together in three-dimensional form.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Innere Stadt
  92. Hofburg Palace Hofburg Palace
    93 20 min

    Hofburg Palace

    Schweizertor

    The Hofburg is not a palace but a district of palaces, and the Austrian president works in it.

    • Notable
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  93. Palais Ferstel Palais Ferstel
    94 1 hr 30 min

    Palais Ferstel

    Palais Ferstel is a mid-nineteenth-century palace between Freyung and Herrengasse in Vienna's Innere Stadt, built between 1856 and 1860 to a design by architect Heinrich von Ferstel, after whom it is named.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Innere Stadt
  94. Wasserturm Wasserturm
    97 45 min

    Wasserturm

    Wasserturm Favoriten

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Favoriten

Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·

More city guides

Where to base yourself

District boundaries come from OSM administrative relations, so a district page holds exactly the places inside it — plus, for the islands and the coast, the nearest district by proximity.

  • Innere Stadt

    Places
    929
    Across the district
    27 min
  • Leopoldstadt

    Places
    414
    Across the district
    2 hr 21 min
  • Alsergrund

    Places
    330
    Across the district
    34 min
  • Hietzing

    Places
    264
    Across the district
    2 hr 5 min
  • Döbling

    Places
    282
    Across the district
    1 hr 20 min
  • Liesing

    Places
    281
    Across the district
    2 hr 30 min
  • Donaustadt

    Places
    304
    Across the district
    3 hr 29 min
  • Neubau

    Places
    282
    Across the district
    23 min
  • Landstraße

    Places
    251
    Across the district
    54 min
  • Favoriten

    Places
    253
    Across the district
    1 hr 51 min
  • Währing

    Places
    186
    Across the district
    1 hr 7 min
  • Wieden

    Places
    186
    Across the district
    23 min
  • Penzing

    Places
    162
    Across the district
    2 hr 9 min
  • Mariahilf

    Places
    204
    Across the district
    29 min
  • Floridsdorf

    Places
    187
    Across the district
    1 hr 47 min
  • Meidling

    Places
    181
    Across the district
    59 min
  • Simmering

    Places
    158
    Across the district
    1 hr 49 min
  • Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus

    Places
    176
    Across the district
    35 min
  • Josefstadt

    Places
    142
    Across the district
    18 min
  • Ottakring

    Places
    142
    Across the district
    1 hr 18 min
  • Margareten

    Places
    129
    Across the district
    25 min
  • Hernals

    Places
    102
    Across the district
    1 hr 23 min
  • Brigittenau

    Places
    93
    Across the district
    43 min

How the city is laid out

Twenty-three districts, numbered roughly in the order they were absorbed, arranged around the 1st.

The Innere Stadt is the 1st and holds the cathedral, the Hofburg, the opera and most of what a short visit will see. Districts 2 to 9 and 20 were incorporated in 1850 and lie inside the Gürtel, the outer ring road; they are the inner districts and are where most visitors sleep and eat. Districts 10 to 19 and 21 to 23 came in between 1874 and 1938, mostly in 1892.

Districts 21 and 22 are across the Danube on the left bank — Floridsdorf is the northernmost part of the city and Donaustadt the largest by area. Districts 2 and 20 sit on the island between the Danube and the Donaukanal.

The postal code gives the district: 1XXA, where the middle two digits are the district number. An address at 1070 is in the 7th.

Checked 2026-08-23

Getting around

The U-Bahn, the trams, and a ticket that covers both.

The U-Bahn has five lines, 109 stations and 83.9 km of track, and it opened on 25 February 1978. It carried 404.8 million passengers in 2023. Trains run from about 05:00 to 01:00 at intervals of two to fifteen minutes, and run all night at fifteen-minute intervals on Friday and Saturday nights and before public holidays.

A sixth line, the U5, is under construction for completion between 2026 and 2032; the network will then be 90 km with 116 stations.

Tickets are integrated with the trams, the buses and the S-Bahn through the VOR system, so one ticket covers the whole journey. Some airport services are outside it.

Inside the Ring, walking beats all of it.

Checked 2026-08-23

Common questions

How many days does Vienna need?

Three to four. Two days cover the Innere Stadt and the Ring — the cathedral, the Hofburg, the opera, the museums on the Maria-Theresien-Platz. A third takes Schönbrunn and the Belvedere, and a fourth allows a proper concert or an afternoon in the wine villages.

How do the districts work?

Twenty-three of them, numbered roughly in the order they joined the city. The 1st is the medieval centre, districts 2–9 and 20 came in 1850 and lie inside the Gürtel, and the rest arrived between 1874 and 1938. The postal code carries the number: 1070 is the 7th district.

What is the Ringstrasse?

The boulevard built in the second half of the nineteenth century on the line of the demolished city bastions, encircling the Innere Stadt. Most of Vienna's great public buildings face onto it.

Is the U-Bahn the best way around?

For anything beyond the Ring, yes. Five lines, 109 stations, 83.9 km, running from about 05:00 to 01:00 and all night at weekends. Inside the Ring, walking is faster.

When is the best time to come?

April to June and September to October. Summer afternoons reach 27–32°C and the palace gardens have little shade; winter hovers around freezing but brings the concert season and the Christmas markets.

How big is Vienna really?

414.78 km² with 2,028,499 people in the city proper, 2,223,236 in the urban area and 2,890,577 in the metropolitan area — the tenth largest city in Europe.