When I first came along this square, I really was surprised. Somehow I did not expect such a cosy and neat little square in a big city like Vienna.

Servitenplatz resembles the centre of a small Austrian village. So what do you need for such a square? An old church, some benches, huge trees which give shade, a café, a pub, nice stores in the surrounding streets and local people who enjoy it- both old and young. This is what you get here! And that’s why I like this spot.

There is the Servite church from 1677, there is a coffeeshop without a name (where you get homemade ice in summer!), there is a pub besides a hairdresser, and there are these nice simple benches where you can watch couples, the old folk chatting or children playing football.

In winter time it’s quiet here, but in summer it’s pretty much the center of that quarter. I think every time of the year it’s worth a visit. The sad history of the Servitengasse, leading to the square, is quite touching. Decades ago it used to be a street where many Jews were living (half of the population of the ninth district in 1938 were Jews, like Sigmund Freud who lived pretty much around the corner), but with the Nazi regime they had to leave their flats and homes. A little memorial with all symbolic keys shows the names of the displaced persons. Some sad history for a neat little square.

The Mozart lovers, who know the true story, the very neighbors in the third district and the gloomy city tourists may know about this spot. But even some of my Viennese friends have never seen or heard about this attraction.

Vienna is known as a place for morbid melancholy, so what else should be more than suitable as to visit a very small and hidden Biedermeier cemetery which was a burial site for about 90 years until 1874.

St. Marx Cemetery is the place where once poor Mozart was thrown into a mass grave (so it’s said) as there was no money for to pay a proper funeral. But you are not here to visit the vanished mass graves of former times but this neat and peaceful park-like place, with small paths, trees and shrubbery.

The cemetery has amazing weather-beaten tombstones, sculptures fallen to bits and pieces, epigrams worn off by the ravages of time.

If you can read German you will realize that on such a bourgeois cemetery it was a very important thing to show the profession of the deceased on the tombstone – a brewer, a landlord, a cigarette shop owner, etc..

This is a beautiful, quiet spot for a stroll (though the setting with a highway overpass very close is a bit weird), especially in snowy winter times. In autumn all trees turn gold and red, and now in April and May beautiful lilac blossoms all over the place.

Now it’s finally open again – until October you can enjoy climbing the wall on the flak tower at Esterházypark. This might not be the most interesting spot in Vienna for eclectic rock climbing but it is definitely the one with the best view once you get to the higher parts of the routes – even more incentive to finish instead of giving up halfway. You can rent equipment there. Also there are days when you can try out climbing with an instructor for € 6.00, the next one’s on the 8th of May. Since the climbing wall is all outdoors, it’s closed in case of “stormy wind” & “liquid sunshine”!

If you are with someone who’s not too much into climbing they can hang out in the park and watch you or other future ‘rockstars’ on the wall; or alternatively there’s the Apollo movie theater right across the street, architecturally interesting because of its many hallways which sometimes make you feel like in a labyrinth. No excuses: get high!

And if afterwards you feel like having some delicious falafel at my favorite place Maschu (check the Maschu Maschu article) just walk up Neubaugasse for three minutes.

The term “Altes AKH” refers to Vienna’s old general hospital! When it was no longer a hospital it became rather a nice place to go!

The construction has more than 300 years of history and was built in several phases being extended in courtyards according to the needs along the times. In fact the interest of this spot is not the construction itself, but these open spaces!

The green areas provided are excellent to hang out. This building is nowadays part of the University, so it is visited fairly frequented by younger people and students but the patios are public and accessible for everyone. In the main courtyard several cafes, restaurants and even a supermarket can be found.

The courtyards are connected with passages and location maps. There is a small monument in one of the yards (a former synagogue) and a museum of pathologies which is located in a former madhouse (be aware of short opening times)! The several patios are great for a city break and to get lost out of the city agitation…