A photograph of Vienna

City guide · Austria

Theme: History in Vienna, Austria — page 5

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 Inner...

Photograph · Andrzej Otrębski · CC BY-SA 4.0

5,640 Places
23 Districts
Suggested stay
3–4 days
Getting around
U-Bahn and tram

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

Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor

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.

Checked 2026-08-23

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

Planning a visit

September · September in Vienna has mean high 20.3°C, mean low 11.7°C, rainfall 53.5 mm, 7.0 rain days. Comfortable daytime temperatures support Vienna's parks, boulevards, and outdoor café culture. September supports a full day of outdoor stops in Vienna.

  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

Sources

Top things to see

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

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. Wasserturm Wasserturm
    97 45 min

    Wasserturm

    Wasserturm Favoriten

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Favoriten
  15. Palais Schönburg Palais Schönburg
    101 45 min

    Palais Schönburg

    Palais Starhemberg-Schönburg

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Wieden
  16. Schloss Essling Schloss Essling
    103 45 min

    Schloss Essling

    Schloss Eßling

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Donaustadt
  17. St. Anne's Church St. Anne's Church
    104 30 min

    St. Anne's Church

    Klosterkirche hl. Anna

    • High
    • Place of worship
    • Innere Stadt

Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·

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.

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

More city guides

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.