Exploring Vienna's Historic Landmarks: A Guided Walking Tour with Scholars

We started our tour at the main building of the University of Vienna, which is the oldest university in the German-speaking world (founded in 1365). Here our city guide explained the history of the famous imperial buildings along the Vienna Ring Road (Ringstraße) mirroring Vienna's status as residence of the Habsburg dynasty rulers until 1918. Passing by the City Hall and the Burgtheater we reached the public park named Volksgarten with its beautiful rose gardens displaying over 3,000 rose bushes.

Then we passed the Heldenplatz and learned about the history of the Vienna Imperial Palace (Wiener Hofburg) and its current office of the Austrian Federal President Alexander van der Bellen. Also located in the Hofburg is the Austrian National Library that offers access to over 11.6 million objects and public reading rooms. Then we visited the remains from Roman times at Michaelerplatz, crossed through the first district and ended our tour in front of Saint Stephen´s Cathedral, the emblematic church in the heart of the city centre. It was a lovely tour and great meeting our scholars on this sunny afternoon!

We recommend to check out this website that provides an overview of Vienna's main sights.