Sometimes you need to leave well-travelled paths and seek adventure away from Vienna’s old town and palaces. Then you might discover hidden jewels jealously guarded by the local population. Like the Hirschstetten Advent market.
- Located in botanical gardens
- Includes a large indoor area
- …and a wonderful floral exhibition
- Typically around 50 stands
- 2025 dates: TBA (was Thursdays to Sundays, Nov 14-Dec 22, in 2024)
- Free entry
- Book a concert experience* for your Vienna trip
- See also:
Market and exhibition
(The unassuming front entrance to the complex)
Vienna’s Wiener Stadtgärten department runs the Hirschstetten gardens with much love. This botanical (and zoological) delight lives on the far side of the Danube in the city’s 22nd district.
In the weeks before Christmas, the gardens and glasshouses host a rather fine Advent market with a bonus that no other market offers: a quite remarkable floristic Christmas exhibition.
Let us begin with the market…
Local handicrafts & snacks
On our visit to an earlier edition, the market featured over 50 stands with a more local character than you might get elsewhere. A less commercial, less pristine ambience seemed to pervade, where the person staffing a booth might happily just chat about the weather or local politics with you.
Expect a fair few handicrafts, such as decorations from lace and natural materials (which we bought for my mum in England), Advent wreaths, sheepskin slippers, woolen clothing, and similar.
On the food front, traditional Austrian and seasonal fare tend to dominate. So I came across, for example, giant pastries, roast chestnuts, Christmas punch (of course), sausages, Leberkäse, Christmas biscuits, baked potatoes, waffles, smoked pulled port, and pancakes.
(I did spot a distinctly not-Austrian jellybean section in the candy booth.)
(Some of the crafted decorations we bought at the 2023 market)
Various locations sold cheeses, cured meats & hams, pickles, Schnapps, vinegars, jams, honey, sausages and the like to take home. The selection offered insight into local tastes and traditions.
The cheeses, for example, included such rustic options as smoked varieties from the mountains of Vorarlberg and carried glorious names like Truffelbergkäse.
We bought a Bergkäse matured for 21 months. Not cheap. But so delicious. Full-flavoured cheeses like a good Bergkäse are my kryptonite.
The hams and sausages reveal Austria’s love of heartier fare; you can find a layer of fat thicker than the layer of lean on your cured meat, presumably to keep you warm in snow-filled Alpine valleys. (Not that you get too many of the latter in Vienna.)
Some booths and stands reside inside a glasshouse, including a whole section devoted to raising money for charity with handmade decorations, vintage goods and the like. But most line an outdoor route through the garden complex.
That same route has Christmas decorations and lights to dispel the quiet gloom that settles over the plant world as the days draw in.
The Christmas exhibition
All of the above makes for a fine seasonal market experience, but the rather lovely and decorative icing on the Christmas cake comes from the annual floral exhibition.
You might imagine a few sad-looking spruce trees and a forlorn sprig of holly or two.
Nope.
Raise your expectations significantly.
The in-house expertise turns a long and large nursery glasshouse into a floral winter wonderland around a particular theme: a landscape crafted out of trees, shrubs, flowers, models and installations.
All rather impressive, especially when you get up close and see the cut flowers, live plants and other natural materials used (and the obvious care that goes into the decorative elements).
We had a chat with one of the Wiener Stadtgärten staff members and you could see the pride in their work. (Deserved pride.)
The 2022 theme, for example, was Christmas around the world, covering the likes of Scandinavia, Mexico, Ireland and Australia. The displays included hundreds of red and white varieties of poinsettia.
Those poinsettias returned in 2023, where the theme was “Märchen” (myths, fairytales, and stories). This included Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol told in three creative scenes.
And in 2024, we had a flashback display featuring some of the highlights from past years, including 2014’s Alpine Christmas, 2018’s Snow White and 2005’s Christmas beneath the Palm Trees.
2025 dates & opening times
I don’t have 2025 details at the time of writing.
For the record, dates for the 2024 Hirschstetten market and exhibition were November 14th to December 22nd. The market only opened Thursdays to Sundays with times of 10am to 8pm.
The market typically has a few small rides for children and daily musical performances, which might see Gospel singers, swing time bands, country music, or traditional Viennese performers take to the stage.
How to get to Hirschstetten
Check the main Hirschstetten article for travel tips. The U1 subway and 26 tram route is your best public transport option.
Address: Blumengärten Hirschstetten, Quadenstraße 15, 1220 Vienna | Website