Almost every visitor finds themselves on Stephansplatz square at some point: home to Vienna’s cathedral and the de facto centre of the city. But what else can you see there?
- Sights include:
- …the 1641 archbishop’s palais
- …the 1740 Churhaus
- …the Dom Museum
- Book a two-hour walking tour* of historical Vienna
- See also:
Cathedral & more
(View across from the Graben)
Stephansdom dominates the centre of Stephansplatz square, which tells you that this part of Vienna goes back a long long way in time. The cathedral went up in the 1200s and wasn’t even the first ecclesiastical building on that site.
This gothic giant has witnessed considerable change in its surrounds, though. The buildings lining the west side of the square, for example, are positively juvenile. Though the other three sides supplement the historical ambience.
Stephansplatz merges seamlessly into Stock-im-Eisen-Platz at the entrances to Kärntner Straße and the Graben. But I’m just going to consider locations with an address on the square.
So…let’s take a closer look.
The Cathedral
(A Christmas market encircles much of the cathedral at the end of the year)
We begin, inevitably, with Stephansdom: a working cathedral, one of Vienna’s landmark sites, and a popular tourist attraction.
The best way to capture the whole cathedral on camera is to stand at the end of the Graben. But be sure to walk around the entire exterior to snap those extra details, like the WWII resistance symbol engraved into a wall.
I have several articles that help you explore Stephansdom in depth, but start here for its overall history and tips on which parts to see.
The entrance to the south tower on the (surprise) south side is actually Stephansplatz 1, so let us continue our journey diametrically opposite at Number 2…
Zur Weltkugel
(Go round to the right for one of our iconic café-Konditorei establishments: Aida)
This darker coloured building guards the southwest corner of the square.
Despite its look and wall frescoes, the Zur Weltkugel building at Stephansplatz 2 “only” went up after the 1896 demolition of the much larger baroque Lazanskyhaus.
(Oil painting of Stephansdom viewed from the Graben by Rudolph von Alt in 1832; public domain image courtesy of Belvedere’s Open Content Policy.)
The new building took up less space, thus allowing a better view of the cathedral from the Graben.
A branch of Bank Austria with a self-service foyer occupies the ground floor.
Now let’s progress anti-clockwise around the square. To the left of the Zur Weltkugel as you face it is…
The Churhaus
(Notable for the two entrance portals on the right of the picture opposite the cathedral)
Stephansplatz 3 is the so-called Churhaus, completed in 1740 to a design by Daniel Christoph Dietrich and Johann Gottfried Pock with additional floors added early in the next century.
The building has its own chapel inside and a notable historical library and book collection. It also contains facilities, offices and accommodation affiliated with the cathedral or archdiocese of Vienna.
Stephansplatz 4
(This part houses the popular Haas & Haas tearooms)
The angled façade of Stephansplatz 4 forms the back of the Deutschordenshaus: the Teutonic Order’s Viennese home that dates back to the 1200s, though the buildings you see are from several hundred years later (I think?).
The main entrance to that complex is around the corner on Singerstraße. Inside you find, for example, a church and treasury. Both Mozart and Brahms used to live there.
On Stephansplatz, the address is best known for the Haas & Haas tea shop and tearooms.
(In case you thought lotteries were a modern invention)
I have a soft spot for the K.k. Lotto Collectur, too, where you can play the Austrian state lottery. Nothing special, you might think, but you could also do that here as far back as 1752.
According to today’s lottery organisers, Mozart tried his luck there. As did Emperor Franz Joseph, which is one way of financing territorial expansion into the Balkans, I suppose.
Domherrenhof
(At the time of writing, the ground floor has a branch of Frey Wille, one of my sources for recommended souvenirs)
Stephansplatz 5 is the Domherrenhof from around 1842, though its predecessors go back all the way to the 1300s.
We now approach the buildings lining the north edge of the square…
Zwettlhof
(Home to the Dom Museum)
Stephansplatz 6 is the south side of the Zwettlhof: the building inherited its name from the preceding medieval complex at this location once owned by Stift Zwettl abbey (still going strong today).
Today’s mid-19th century building also has the main entrance of the Archdiocese of Vienna’s Dom Museum, which is open to the public and contains both religious and (surprisingly modern) art treasures.
An all-inclusive ticket* for Stephansdom also gets you into the Dom Museum.
Erzbischöfliches Palais
(Part of the home to Vienna’s archbishop)
Stephansplatz 7 is a venerable two-courtyard complex that extends up Rotenturmstraße and along the Wollzeile. The Erzbischöfliches Palais (the Archbishop’s residence) replaced its 13th-century predecessor around 1641.
The palais still houses Vienna’s archbishop and select staff members as well as a chapel and archdiocese institutions.
(A proper entrance way)
The building as such is not open to the public, but does have two stores popular with visitors on the side facing the cathedral. Their contents make good gifts and souvenirs:
- Pirker: suppliers of traditional Lebkuchen
- Manner: a local producer of snacks and chocolates, most notably the Manner Schnitten
Stephansplatz 8 to 11
(How address 8 used to look, as painted by August Gerasch around 1880; public domain image courtesy of Belvedere’s Open Content Policy)
The remaining west side of the square has sets of modern buildings that hint at a dark chapter in Viennese history.
Various historical buildings used to occupy the same space, but these were destroyed by fire toward the end of WWII. The same fire, I believe, as seriously damaged the cathedral.
(How addresses 9-11 used to look; a photo of Rothbergers Warenhaus department store reproduced by C. Angerer & Göschl some time after 1900; Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 241125; excerpt reproduced with permission under the terms of the CC0 licence)
To learn more about that era, take a look at my guide to WWII locations and memorials.
How to get to Stephansplatz
You will almost certainly walk across the square on a meander through the city centre, and Stephansdom actually marks the end point of my self-guided walking route suggestion.
But Stephansplatz also has its own subway station with an exit in front of the cathedral. Take lines U1 or U3 to reach it.
Address: Stephansplatz, 1010 Vienna