Vienna has more layers than most European capitals. You walk over Roman ruins, through baroque squares, past Gründerzeit boulevards and the social housing of Red Vienna. Eight places where the history becomes visible.
1. Hoher Markt (Ancient Vindobona)
Vienna started as a Roman military camp. The remains of Camp Vindobona lie beneath Hoher Markt in the 1st district, a small museum (Römermuseum) shows them. This is where the older city history ends: 1st century into the 5th.
2. St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Middle Ages)
First church in the 12th century, Gothic construction from 1359. The south tower was Central Europe’s tallest for over 400 years. The Giant’s Door on the west side is Romanesque, the rest Gothic. Stephansplatz as the city centre hasn’t moved since the Middle Ages.
3. Heldenplatz and the Hofburg (Habsburgs)
The Hofburg grew from the 13th century onwards over 600 years. Oldest part: Schweizerhof (13th c.), newest: Neue Burg (1913). Heldenplatz is named after Archduke Charles (1771-1847) and Prince Eugene, whose equestrian statues stand there. From the balcony of the Neue Burg, Hitler announced the “Anschluss” in 1938. Today it’s the seat of the Federal President.
4. Schönbrunn (Baroque and Enlightenment)
Maria Theresia finished the palace in 1743. 1,441 rooms. Marie Antoinette grew up here, Mozart played for the court at age six, the Empress died here in 1780. The gardens, Gloriette and zoo (world’s oldest, 1752) come with it.
5. Ringstraße (Gründerzeit)
In 1857, Emperor Franz Joseph ordered the city walls torn down. On the cleared glacis rose the Ringstraße: State Opera (1869), Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museum (1891), City Hall (1883), Parliament (1883), University (1884), stock exchange, Burgtheater. Within 30 years Vienna reinvented itself as a metropolis.
6. Belvedere (Klimt and Viennese Modernism)
The Upper Belvedere holds the key paintings of Viennese Modernism: Klimt’s “Kiss” (1908), Schiele’s “Death and the Maiden” (1915). Around them: the Secession (founded 1897 as a counter-movement to the Academy), Otto Wagner’s Postsparkasse (1906), Adolf Loos’s Looshaus on Michaelerplatz (1911).
7. Karl-Marx-Hof (Red Vienna)
Between 1919 and 1934, the Social Democratic city government built around 60,000 social-housing units. The Karl-Marx-Hof in the 19th district, at 1.1 km, is the most famous building of that era. February fighting 1934, civil war, end of Red Vienna.
8. Judenplatz and Holocaust memorial (20th century)
Rachel Whiteread’s memorial (2000) remembers the 65,000 murdered Austrian Jews. Next door, the Museum Judenplatz with the remains of the medieval synagogue destroyed in 1421. Two layers in one place.
To turn it into a walk
A three-hour walk from Hoher Markt via Stephansdom, Hofburg, Ring and on to Belvedere is enough to cover seven of these points. Schönbrunn is its own trip. Karl-Marx-Hof by subway (U4 Heiligenstadt).