Time-Travel Virtual Reality Sightseeing Walking Tour Vienna

Neuer Markt and the start of the walk

The tour starts at Neuer Markt, an elegant square a few steps from the Kärntner Straße shopping street. In the Middle Ages it was the city's flour market; today it is framed by baroque and 19th-century buildings, with the Capuchin Church, above the imperial crypt, on one side and the Donner Fountain, an 18th-century masterpiece of baroque sculpture, in the middle.

Here you meet your guide with a yellow flag, receive your VR glasses and earphones and choose your audio language: English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian or Russian. The guide explains how the headsets work, and then the group sets off on foot. It is an ideal way to start a Vienna old town walking tour, because many of the most famous sights of the city lie within a few minutes of this square.

St. Stephen's Cathedral and Stephansplatz

St. Stephen's Cathedral is the symbol of Vienna: a Gothic church with a South Tower rising 136 metres and a roof of colourful glazed tiles in a zigzag pattern. Built and enlarged from the 12th to the 16th century, it has seen almost every chapter of the city's history. Two VR scenes take place here. In the first you join a procession in 1483, one of the rare days when the treasures of the church were shown to the people.

In the last scene you stand on Stephansplatz in April 1945, as fire spreads through the cathedral roof in the final days of the Second World War and the fighting for the city comes to an end. The roof and the great bell were destroyed and the cathedral reopened after rebuilding in the early 1950s. Seeing the same square full of life around you afterwards is one of the most powerful moments of the walk.

Siege and plague in old Vienna

Between the old lanes of the inner city, two scenes take you back to the 17th century. In 1683 the Ottoman army besieged Vienna for two months; the VR scene places you among the defenders as the city waits for relief. Your guide explains how the siege ended and what it changed for Vienna and for Central Europe.

Just a few years earlier, in 1679, a terrible plague swept through the city. Here you meet the legend of Augustin, a street singer who, according to the story, fell asleep in a plague pit and climbed out the next morning unharmed, still singing. The song about him is still known by every Viennese child, and the tale shows how the city used humour and music to survive hard times.

The Hofburg imperial palace

The Hofburg was the seat of the Habsburgs for more than six centuries and grew into a city within the city, with courtyards, chapels, the Spanish Riding School and the imperial apartments. On this walk you see it from outside, from its squares and gates, while the VR glasses show a sunny day in the 19th century with Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth riding out to the hunt.

Standing so close to the road that the carriages almost brush past you, you get a feeling for court life that no museum can give. The guide adds stories about the palace and its people, and you can come back later to visit the Sisi Museum, the Treasury or the Spanish Riding School on your own.

The State Opera and the Albertina

The Vienna State Opera opened on the Ringstrasse in 1869 and remains one of the most famous opera houses in the world. In its VR scene you are transported to the 1920s, watching the people of Vienna dress up and prepare for an evening at the opera in the golden years between the wars. The building itself was badly damaged in 1945 and reopened in 1955.

The walk finishes at the Albertina, a former Habsburg palace on the old city bastion behind the Opera, which now houses a great collection of graphic art and modern painting. After about 100 minutes you are in the middle of everything: the Burggarten, the Hofburg and Kärntner Straße are a few steps away, and the Albertina itself is a perfect next stop.