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Vienna · History

From Vindobona to the 1938 balcony: two thousand years of Vienna

This route peels Vienna back layer by layer, from the oldest to the most recent. It starts on the stones of the Roman camp and ends beneath the balcony from which, in 1938, the end of Austria as an independent state was announced. Six squares, two millennia and one thread you can follow without doubling back.

  • 6 stops
  • 1.6 km
  • 1 h 40 min
  • Free
Start with GPS Read about this stop 1
Heldenplatz with the curved façade of the Neue Burg and the equestrian statue of Prince Eugene

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 St Rupert's Church (Ruprechtskirche)The oldest church still standing in Vienna, perched on what was once the edge of the Roman camp.
  2. 2 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.
  3. 3 JudenplatzThe square of medieval Jewish Vienna, destroyed in 1421, now holds a concrete library whose books no one can open.
  4. 4 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.
  5. 5 BallhausplatzA name that comes from a ball game and now means to Austrians what Downing Street means to the British.
  6. 6 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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Start with GPS

Guide mode

Walk it with GPS.

Open guide mode on your phone: you’ll see your position and the distance to each stop, and we’ll let you know when you arrive. Then read or listen.

Start with GPS

  1. Turn on your location

  2. Walk to the spot

  3. Check the photo and listen

What you’ll discover

From Vindobona to the 1938 balcony: two thousand years of Vienna

Rome beneath your feet

Vienna began as Vindobona, a legionary camp on the Danube, and its outline still shows in the streets of the First District.

Power and memory

From the Babenberg residence to the Federal Chancellery, by way of the memorial to Austria's Holocaust victims.

A short, flat walk

About 1.6 km through the old town, from the city's oldest church to the great open square of the Hofburg.

Keep exploring

More routes in Vienna

Back to Vienna
Mysteries & legendsVienna of the basilisk: devils, plagues and an unsolved death MixedVienna's must-sees: from St Stephen's to the Karlskirche