The Heart of Vienna: A Self-Guided Tour from Opera to Cathedral

(547 reviews)

Vienna audio tour: The Heart of Vienna: A Self-Guided Tour from Opera to Cathedral

This is a 0.9mi walking tour.

It takes an average of 75 mins to complete.

Vienna

Austria

$14.99

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About the Tour

Vienna earned its reputation as Europe’s capital of music and empire, but many of its grandest buildings still carry the scars of war and rivalry. On this walking tour, you’ll hear how imperial ambition, wartime destruction, and local legend shaped the city’s most iconic landmarks.

The tour starts in front of the Vienna State Opera House on the Ringstrasse, built after Emperor Franz Joseph ordered the medieval city walls demolished in 1861. You’ll pass the Hotel Sacher, famous for its chocolate torte and its secret past as a British intelligence outpost during the Cold War, before reaching the Albertina Museum, built atop one of the city’s old medieval bastions.

You’ll pause at the Monument Against War and Fascism, built above a World War II shelter where two hundred Viennese perished, and stand before the Capuchin Church’s Imperial Crypt, where Habsburg emperors were buried after reciting their many royal titles. Along Kärntner Straße, you’ll hear why Mozart and Beethoven called Vienna home. The tour ends at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the Stephansdom, Vienna’s spiritual and architectural centerpiece, scarred by war yet still standing watch over the city’s old quarter.

On this 75-minute walking tour, you’ll have a chance to:

Visit the Donner Fountain, whose original scantily-clad statues were removed by imperial censors and now sit in Lower Belvedere Palace
Learn why Vienna’s coffee house culture began with beans left behind after the 1683 Turkish siege
Hear why St. Augustine’s Church holds the actual hearts of deceased Habsburg royals in silver urns
Hear the Pummerin bell, Austria’s second-largest, cast from cannons captured from the retreating Ottoman army
Spot the hidden “05” symbol, a secret code used by Austria’s anti-Nazi resistance movement
See the curious carvings flanking the Giant’s Gate, once used to separate medieval congregations by gender
Find out how a giant’s “thigh bone” displayed for centuries turned out to be a mastodon’s

By the time you reach the Stephansdom’s Giant’s Gate, you’ll understand why Vienna’s grandest monuments hide its most human stories.

Tour Producer

Alex Parkhill

3 tours

Hello. I am an American Expat working in Vienna, Austria. Together with my friend and colleague Daniel Davison, we have been giving guided tours of Vienna for over 5 years. We are pleased to bring these experiences to you!

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Preview Location

Location 21

North Tower

On your left is the North tower.

Lets stop here for a moment in front of it.

Let's go back to the Turkish siege of 1683. When the Polish king routed the Turks, the Turks left two things on the field of battle that greatly influenced Vienna's culture.

The first was co... On your left is the North tower.

Lets stop here for a moment in front of it.

Let's go back to the Turkish siege of 1683. When the Polish king routed the Turks, the Turks left two things on the field of battle that greatly influenced Vienna's culture.

The first was coffee. Although there was coffee in Vienna before the siege, the copious amounts left by the Turks became the foundation for the coffee houses and coffee culture of Vienna that persists to this day.

The second item left was iron. The cannons and ammunition that the Turks abandoned on the field of battle were gathered up, and then melted and cast into the actual bell that sits on top of the Stephansdom today, in the North tower in front of you. It is a massive bell. The locals call it "Pummerin" which is roughly translated to "Boomer". It weighs in at 44,380 lbs, making it the second largest swinging bell in all of Europe. The largest is in Cologne, Germany, but it is not made out of cannons.

This giant bell also played a part in the life of a man you may have heard of. As the story goes, one day, he walked onto Stephansplatz and when he looked up, he saw all of the pigeons pouring out of the Cathedral, but he could no longer hear the sound of the bell! That's when Ludwig van Beethoven realized he had gone completely deaf.

A little over a century past Beethoven, the Stephansdom became entangled in World War II. During the British and American allied bombardments, they didn't use firebombs in Vienna, as they had in places like Dresden. But, much of the Stephansdom still suffered significant damage. The cathedral actually caught on fire. That massive bell we just talked about crashed through all the floors all the way to the ground and melted, right in front of where you're standing. The beautiful roof tiling was also destroyed. After WWII, they recast the bell from the very same Turkish iron and restored it, along with the roof tiling.

You're hearing the deep resonance of the Pummerin now. Nowadays the bell is rung only 13 times per year and even then only very carefully. The advent of modern architectural engineering led to understanding that full swinging of the bell actually causes significant structural damage to the tower. If you hear it ringing on an average day, it means they’re cheating. What they’re doing is just swinging the internal klacker back and forth and it’s much less loud. You can look up the times online when the "Pummerin" swings fully, which correspond to the important Catholic holidays. For a small fee you can go into both the North and the South towers for excellent views of the surrounding city.

We will be having a look at the cathedral from a few different angles, so continue walking around it, making your way back towards the entrance.

As you walk, have a look at building on your right, across from the North Tower.

This is where the Archbishop of Vienna lives. Occasionally you'll see his car come out of the discrete garage in front of you. On a few occasions while I was giving walking tours and pointing this out, he has leaned out his window to greet us!

Carry on towards the front of the cathedral.

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Major Landmarks

Vienna State Opera
Ringstraßen Galerien
Hotel Sacher Wien
Albertina
Augustinerkirche
Monument Against War and Fascism
Imperial Crypt
Donnerbrunnen
Neuer Markt
Kärntner Straße
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Stephansdom Nordturm
Stephansdom Südturm
Stephansplatz

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Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
Opernring 2, 1010 Wien, Austria
Total distance

1km
Final location
Brandstätte 1, 1010 Wien, Austria
Distance back to start location

729.56m

Directions to Starting Point

Vienna State Opera House, Opernring 2, 1010 Wien, Austria

The starting point is in front of the southern face of the opera house, in between the opera house and the Ring road. You can take the U-bahn to Karlsplatz, or by street tram get off at the Kärntner Ring Oper stop. This tour is wheelchair friendly.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

Directly on the tour recommended eateries include the Bitzinger Würstelstand and the Sacher Hotel Cafe. You may also want to visit inside of the Albertina Art Museum, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and the Habsburg Imperial Crypt.

Best time of day

This tour can be enjoyed anytime day or night. If you would like to enter the museums or churches that we pass, be aware that some of these close at 6pm.

Precautions

The crime rate in Vienna is very low. Nevertheless, be aware of your belongings as there is always the potential for pick pockets in major European cities.

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