Free audio walk in Vienna
Schönbrunn and Hietzing
- 14 stops
- Free
Starts at Hietzinger Platz
About this walk
A village, a zoo dating back to 1752, and a ruin that was never whole, all surrounding the largest palace in the country.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
The village next to the palace
A village that lost its own fame to the palace that was built right beside it.
- 2Stop 2
The debut his father forbade
This is where Johann Strauss the Younger made his debut against his father's wishes, and the hall demanded nineteen encores.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
Burned Down Twice
A pilgrimage church that Ottoman armies destroyed twice and that was rebuilt twice.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
A station for a single passenger
A complete metro station built for one passenger, who by all accounts barely used it.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
The Gate to the Imperial Garden
This park was an imperial hunting ground until Joseph the Second opened the gates to everyone.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
A bridge made of glass
A hundred and eleven metres of iron and glass, built by a bridge builder, holding three climates under one roof.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
A desert under glass
A greenhouse that started out as a sundial house and now holds a desert, complete with naked mole-rats.
Read the story - 8Stop 8
The oldest zoo in the world
The oldest zoo in the world began as a menagerie where the court ate breakfast, with the animal enclosures arranged in a ring around them.
Read the story - 9Stop 9
The Maze That Came Back
The original maze vanished in the nineteenth century and was replanted in 1999, following the old floor plan.
Read the story - 10Stop 10
The fountain from her final year
Maria Theresia had this fountain built in the year she died, the last piece of her garden to be completed.
Read the story - 11Stop 11
A monument to a war that was lost
Built from the stones of a demolished castle, as a monument to a war that was barely won.
Read the story - 12Stop 12
The obelisk with the made-up symbols
An Egyptian obelisk resting on four gilded turtles, covered in hieroglyphs that nobody could read.
Read the story - 13Stop 13
A ruin that was never whole
This ruin was built as a ruin in 1778, cracks and all, and a hundred metres away lies the spring that gave the city its name.
Read the story - 14Stop 14
The palace with fourteen hundred rooms
A six-year-old Mozart played here for the empress, and Franz Joseph was both born and died within these walls.
Read the story
Ready when you are
Walk Schönbrunn and Hietzing with ROODS.
14 stops through Vienna. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
