One day in ViennaEmperors, history and legends in one day
Start early with the Vienna must-sees route: from St Stephen's Cathedral to the Karlskirche, taking in the Graben, the Hofburg, the Albertina and the State Opera. When it ends, head back towards Wollzeile for a Wiener Schnitzel at Figlmüller. In the afternoon, the history route runs from the Ruprechtskirche, Vienna's oldest church, to Heldenplatz; there are plenty of cobbles, so wear comfortable shoes. At dusk the mystery route leads from the Stock im Eisen to the Blutgasse and ends at the Griechenbeisl, perfect for a Tafelspitz dinner.
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Morning
Vienna's must-sees: from St Stephen's to the Karlskirche
- St Stephen's CathedralThe heart of Vienna: a Romanesque Giants' Door, a 136-metre Gothic spire and a coloured roof that rose from the ashes of 1945.
- The Graben and the Plague ColumnA Roman ditch turned into Vienna's most elegant promenade, with the monument an emperor raised in thanks for the end of the plague at its centre.
- Michaelerplatz and the HofburgThe grand gateway to the palace from which the Habsburgs ruled for more than six centuries, facing a façade that scandalised Vienna.
- AlbertinaA palace on a surviving stretch of the city wall, home to Dürer's hare and around a million drawings and prints.
- Vienna State OperaThe first great building on the Ringstrasse, so savaged by critics at its opening that neither of its architects lived to see it finished.
- KarlskircheAn emperor's vow during the plague became Vienna's most spectacular Baroque church, with two columns borrowed from ancient Rome.
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Lunch
Try Wiener Schnitzel at Figlmüller. Wollzeile 5, Viena
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Afternoon
From Vindobona to the 1938 balcony: two thousand years of Vienna
- St Rupert's Church (Ruprechtskirche)The oldest church still standing in Vienna, perched on what was once the edge of the Roman camp.
- Hoher Markt and the Anker ClockUnder the square lie the houses of Roman officers; above it, an Art Nouveau clock parades the great figures of Viennese history.
- JudenplatzThe square of medieval Jewish Vienna, destroyed in 1421, now holds a concrete library whose books no one can open.
- Am HofThe largest square in the old town was the first court of the dukes of Austria and the scene of a lynching in the 1848 revolution.
- BallhausplatzA name that comes from a ball game and now means to Austrians what Downing Street means to the British.
- Heldenplatz and the Neue BurgA square born of a Napoleonic explosion, two heroes on horseback and the balcony from which Hitler announced the Anschluss.
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Early evening
Vienna of the basilisk: devils, plagues and an unsolved death
- The house where Mozart diedHere, in the small hours of 5 December 1791, Mozart died with a half-finished Requiem and a rumour that has never quite gone away.
- The Stock im EisenA medieval spruce trunk bristling with nails, kept behind glass on Vienna's busiest corner, with a padlock no one has ever been able to open.
- The unfinished tower of St Stephen'sA tower left halfway, a master builder who fell from the scaffolding and a Christ who, they say, had toothache.
- Blutgasse, the street of bloodA medieval lane with an unsettling name, a massacre of Templars that never happened and Vienna's most famous resident just round the corner.
- The Basilisk HouseAccording to legend, a monster whose breath could kill appeared in a baker's well. Its stone figure still keeps watch over the street.
- Griechenbeisl and dear AugustinVienna's oldest tavern keeps alive the memory of a piper who, legend says, slept off a drinking bout in a plague pit and climbed out singing.
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Dinner
Try Tafelspitz at Griechenbeisl. Fleischmarkt 11, Viena