State Opera
Wiener Staatsoper
Opened in 1869, the first great building on the Ringstraße and one of the world’s great opera houses.
The opera house was the first public building on the new Ringstraße, opened in 1869 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Gustav Mahler was its director from 1897 to 1907.
Bombed in 1945, it reopened in 1955. Every year the Opera Ball turns its stage and stalls into one great ballroom.
More in Vienna
St Stephen’s CathedralVienna’s Gothic cathedral, with its 136-metre south tower and a roof of glazed tiles in zigzags.
GrabenVienna’s grand shopping street on the line of the Roman ditch, with the Plague Column in the middle.
Plague ColumnThe Baroque column of clouds and angels put up after the plague of 1679.
HofburgThe Habsburgs’ winter palace for six centuries, now the seat of Austria’s president.
MichaelerplatzThe round square at the Hofburg’s gate, where Roman ruins and Adolf Loos’ plain house face the palace.
Spanish Riding SchoolThe white Lipizzaner stallions dance in a Baroque riding hall inside the Hofburg.
AlbertinaA Habsburg palace with one of the world’s largest collections of prints and drawings, Dürer’s Hare among them.
BurgtheaterOne of the most important German-language theatres, on the Ringstraße, opposite the town hall.
RingstraßeThe grand boulevard round the old town, built where the city walls stood.
FiakerThe two-horse carriages that wait on Stephansplatz to drive you round the old town.
Coffee housesMarble tables, newspapers on wooden holders and a glass of water with every coffee.
SachertorteA rich chocolate cake with apricot jam, invented by Franz Sacher in 1832.