Walks · Vienna · English
8 narrated stops, 24 minutes of stories, 4.3 km on foot. Press play at each stop — no app needed — or open the walk in Avsha and let the stories keep coming as you move.
Stop 1 · 3 min
In short: The MuseumsQuartier was originally built in 1723 as the Imperial Stables for Emperor Charles VI. Designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, the complex housed six hundred horses and carriages before being transformed into a cultural district in 2001.
↓ 1.1 km · 16 min to the next stop
Stop 2 · 3 min
In short: The Habsburgs practiced separate burials: bodies are in the Imperial Crypt, hearts are in the Heart Crypt at the Augustinian Church, and internal organs are in the Ducal Crypt beneath St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
↓ 350 m · 5 min to the next stop
Stop 3 · 3 min
In short: The Stock-im-Eisen is a 15th-century spruce trunk where traveling blacksmiths and locksmith apprentices hammered nails for luck. Scientific analysis shows the tree grew around 1400 and is the last of the nail trees that once existed in south-eastern Europe.
↓ 200 m · 3 min to the next stop
Stop 4 · 3 min
In short: Emperor Leopold I built the monument as a vow to God after the 1679 Great Plague. It served as an act of public penance and gratitude, depicting the Emperor in humble prayer and faith conquering the personification of the plague.
↓ 100 m · 2 min to the next stop
Stop 5 · 3 min
In short: According to local legend, Charlemagne founded the Peterskirche in 792 after his campaigns against the Avars. A stone relief on the church’s exterior wall depicts the Emperor founding the original Romanesque structure on what is considered Vienna's oldest church site.
↓ 350 m · 5 min to the next stop
Stop 6 · 3 min
In short: Beneath Hoher Markt lie ruins of Vindobona, including sophisticated Tenth Legion officers' villas with hypocaust underfloor heating systems. Tradition states Emperor Marcus Aurelius died here in 180 AD while leading the Marcomannic Wars to protect the empire from Germanic tribes.
↓ 250 m · 3 min to the next stop
Stop 7 · 3 min
In short: Ruprechtskirche is the oldest church in Vienna, with a legendary founding in 740. It contains the city's oldest bells from the 1200s and the oldest stained-glass window from the 13th century, overlooking the Danube Canal near the former Salt Office.
↓ 2.0 km · 29 min to the next stop
Stop 8 · 3 min
In short: Visitors can take a panorama lift 32 meters into the dome to see Johann Michael Rottmayr’s frescoes. This allows you to view individual brush strokes and figures like Saint Charles Borromeo pleading with the Virgin Mary.