This A to Z guide is intended to give you an overview about what to see and where to go in Vienna, the capital of Austria.
Some more detailed reviews of certain attractions will follow later (some are already available).
A Augarten
This is a nice park north of the city centre, long ago a hunting area for the emperors, but since 1775 open to the public. It also hosts the famous Augarten porcelain factory, which is located in the former Orangerie where Mozart and Beethoven did perform
music for the emperors.
B Belvedere
The two palaces (Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere) have been built as the summer residence for Prince Eugene of
Savoy, an important Austrian military strategist who defeated the Turks in 1683 after they besieged Vienna and he defeated the French Army of Louis XIV at
Blenheim in 1704 (together with the Duke of
Marlborough).
Between the two palaces, you will find very pretty terraced gardens which offer a wonderful view of Vienna. Both palaces now host great museums (e.g. the Austrian Gallery for 19th and 20th century art - Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka).
C Cathedral
The gothic cathedral of St Stephen’s is located in the very centre of the city. It was damaged and rebuilt twice (during the Turkish siege in 1683 and at the end of World War II). It has just one tower, the second tower has never been completed (rumors say that they ran out of money in the Middle Age).
Every visitor to Vienna should of course see the cathedral, and you might want to climb the tower or to walk down into the
catacombs where the hearts of the emporors are buried, as well as the bones of many thousand Austrians who died from the plague some hundred years ago.
D Donauturm
The Donauturm (
Danube Tower) is located close to the Danube river, and it was built for an international gardening exhibition in 1964. You can take the lift to overlook Vienna from a
restaurant which is slowly turning around 360 degrees whilst you are eating. However, the food is not very good and the prices are high.
E Ephesos Museum
Located in the Neue Burg in the city centre, this museum displays a lot of items which are the result of Austrian archaeologists‘ acitivity in Ephesos over the past 100 years. The bronze statue Athlete of Ephesos is well known.
F Fine Arts Museum
Probably the most important museum in Vienna is the Fine Arts Museum (
Kunsthistorisches Museum) located in a large historic building within walking distance from the city centre.
You’ll find there Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman Art as well as a huge collection of fine paintings of very well-known artists (Bruegel, Rubens, Dürer, Rembrandt, Titian, Velazquez - to name just a few).
G Grinzing
Grinzing a small former suburb in the north-western part of Vienna, where you will find a lot of the typical winerestaurants (Heurigen). Go there in the evening, especially nice during spring and summer when you can sit outside and enjoy the wine and the scenery of the Viennese vineyards.
H Hofburg
The Hofburg is like a small town within the town. It used to be the residence of the Habsburgs (Austrian Emperors) for many centuries.
Some parts are open to the public, amongst them the Kaiserappartements (ImperialApartments), the Hofburgkapelle (CastleChapel) and the Spanish Riding School (world-famous for the performances of the white Lippizaner horses who can dance the quadrille and the waltz.
I Imperial Treasury
The Schatzkammer (Imperial Treasury) is also located in the Hofburg. There you can see the Habsburg crown jewels as well as a collection of secular treasures - quite impressive!
J Jesuits Church
The Jesuitenkirche is one of the many churches in the centre of Vienna, it has a rich baroque decoration, a pulpit inlaid with mother of pearl and beautiful frescos.
K KunstHaus
The KunstHaus is one of the more recent museums, designed by the famous Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Some of his artwork is shown here, as well as various other exhibitions.
Close to the KunstHaus there is the Hundertwasserhaus, a very famous apartment house building in typical Hundertwasser style (no straight lines, no flat floors, a lot of colours, etc.). Some families live in these flats, so you can only look at the house from the outside.
L Library
The Austrian National Library is located in the Hofburg area, it was founded in the 14th century, and there are more than 2.5 million books (amongst them the famous Gutenberg Bible from the 15th century) and many other interesting things (papyrus, handwritings, photographs, a large globe and atlas department, etc.).
Particularly impressive is the Great Hall (Prunksaal) which was built in the late 18th centruy to hold the magnificant library (16,000 books) of Prince Eugene of Savoy. It is in baroque style with frescos by Daniel Gran in the oval dome, columns and statues, and wainscoting with gold.
M Mozart House
In the city centre you can visit Mozart House. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived in this flat from 1784 to 1787 when he composed The Marriage of Figaro.
N Naschmarkt
Naschmarkt (in Wienzeile, west of the city centre) is a very old and famous food market (open daily except Sundays), where you can buy everything from local food to tropical fruit.
At the end of Naschmarkt, every Saturday morning, there is Vienna’s largest flea-market which is always very busy.
O Opera
The Opera (Staatsoper) - inaugurated with Mozart’s Don Juan in 1869 - is a very impressive building located at Opernring. Still nowadays it is one of the world’s leading opera houses. Tickets for the Opera are not easily available, but sometimes the
hotels can help.
Once a year, the Opera is turned into a giant ballroom to host the famous Vienna Opera Ball, where the long-standing Vienna waltz tradition is preserved (you might know The Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss).
P Prater
The Prater may be one of the most well-known areas in Vienna. Its large green gardens served as a hunting reserve for the aristocracy, but have been opened to the public by Emperor Josef II (late 18th century).
There is a large
amusement park area in the Prater, and the big (61 m diameter) Giant Ferry Wheel dominates the silhouette of the area.
Q Quai
The Danube river splits Vienna into two parts. Twenty years ago, an island was built in the middle of the river (25 km long) to prevent flooding. Now, this island (Donauinsel) has become the favourite place for people from Vienna to spend sunny weekends (up to 200,000 a day), and it is a
paradise for cyclers, skaters and joggers.
Along both banks of the river Danube, large Quai areas have been established with very busy small pubs, restaurants (you normally sit outside, close to the river), some discos, sporting facilities etc, which makes it an excellent idea just to walk along the Quai in the evenings.
R Ringstrasse
The Ringstrasse is a very large boulevard which surrounds the inner city of Vienna (like a ring). In 1860, the city-walls have been taken down and have been replaced by a number of great buildings in historic style situated on both sides of the Ringstrasse.
You should certainly go for a walk along Ringstasse to see impressive buildings like the Opera, the Hofburg, the two large Museums (Fine Arts and Nature), the Houses of Parliament, the Town Hall, the Burgtheater, the
University, the old
Stock Exchange, etc.; as well as some of the many parks in Vienna (Stadtpark, Burggarten, Volksgarten, Rathauspark).
S Schönbrunn
The
number onetourist attraction in Vienna which you should not miss when you visit Vienna is Schönbrunn - the Imparial Palace, the large Gardens, the Gloriette and the
Zoo.
I have written two separate reviews about Schönbrunn Palace and the Zoo where you can find more details.
T Tramways
Public transport in Vienna is very efficient with a large number of tramway lines covering most of Vienna. To some outer parts, public bus services are available.
The tramways (traditionally in red and white) were originally operated by horse power, but of course this has changed to electricity at the beginning of the 20th century.
U Underground
Unlike many other big towns (there are 1.8 million inhabitants in Vienna), there are just a few underground lines - five in fact. These are numbered and colour coded (sign posted U) and very efficient. You can buy one-, two- or three-day tickets which are valid for trams and bus as well.
V Volksgarten
At the Ringstrasse, opposite the Houses of Parlament, there is one of these large parks, called Volksgarten. It is the oldest public garden in Vienna. The Temple of Theseus (a smaller copy of the Greek original), monuments to Grillparzer (the poet) and to Empress Elisabeth are set against floral backgrounds, rose gardens, lakes and statutes.
W Wagner
In Vienna, you will find a lot of buildings from the 1890s which were designed by the famous architect Otto Wagner. Amongst them, the Ankerhaus (with a nice jacquemart clock which presents a procession of historic characters at noon), the impressive St. Leopold’s Church (in Steinhof), some apartment houses along Wienzeile in the Naschmarkt area, many stations of the previous Stadtbahn (now U4 / U6 - this underground rides above ground in Vienna!) including the famous Otto Wagner pavillion at Karlsplatz (now a cafe and an Otto Wagner museum).
X X-files
No, you won’t find Mulder and Scully in Vienna, but are some mystery tours available in Vienna, mainly walking below the ground in the extensive sewerage system.
If you have seen the film „The Third Man“ with Orson Wells, this gives you a good idea of how Vienna was when it was split into four zones (USA, UK, France and Soviet Union) from 1945 to 1955, and when Vienna was the centre of spies from East and West during the Cold War. If you have not yet seen „The Third Man“, try to get hold of the video. The mystery tours follow the places shown in this film.
Y
Youth HostelThe Youth Hostel at Wilhelminenberg is situated next to a fine palace on a hill in the woodland area (Wienerwald), overlooking the whole of Vienna - a magnficent view.
Z Zentralfriedhof
The main cemetery of Vienna (Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest in Europe, with more than 3 million people who have been buried here since 1874. It is 2.4 sqkm large and can be a busy place sometimes (but at least it is silent).
The graves of many well-known people can be found here, including Johann Strauss father and son, Franz Schubert,
Ludwig van Beethoven, Karl Kraus, Arthur Schnitzler, all Austrian presidents and prime ministers, and (a recent tourist attraction) Falco, the only Austrian pop star (Rock me Amadeus, Jeanny) who ever had a number one hit in the US charts. He died in an accident a few years ago.One of the problems of such A to Z guides is the fact that very often there is more than one attraction with the same letter, which means that I had to make decisions, and a few very interesting places are not mentioned.
However, I do hope that I could give you an overview of what to expect from a trip to my home town.
BTW: The main shopping streets are Kärntner Strasse, Graben and Mariahilfer Strasse, the most expensive shopping mile is Kohlmarkt.
Many thanks for reading.
Take care,
Michael
The A to Z guide for Vienna 
