And we’re back for Season 3 of Vienna Blood with a location guide for those parts filmed in the titular city. These are my favourite articles to write as we love the show and doing the location research.
- Featured locations include Belvedere, the Loos House, Michaelerplatz, Dr Ignaz Seipel Platz, the Hofburg and the Zentralfriedhof cemetery
- Book a guided tour* of historical Vienna
- See also:
I based this on our local knowledge after watching the three new episodes. Find Season 1 locations here (which includes several that repeat across episodes in later seasons) and Season 2 locations here.
Location map
This map features all the places we found in Vienna across all nine episodes…
Season 3 locations
Right, first of all this article covers Vienna only. Much of the filming actually took place in the city of Budapest.
I don’t have the local expertise for Hungary’s capital, but media information mentions such locations there as Bedo House, the Párisi Udvar Hotel, the Postal Museum, the National Museum of Hungary, and the Vígszínház Theatre.
(Warning: may contain minor spoilers. Note that episodes follow the Austrian numbering system: one for each case in this season. So Episode 1 is Deadly Communion, Episode 2 is The God of Shadows, etc.)
This season is again based on Frank Tallis’s wonderful books and is again produced by MR FILM and Endor Productions in a co-production with ORF, ZDF, and RedArrow Studios (with the able support of the National Film Office Hungary, Fernsehfonds Austria and Filmfonds Wien).
Episode 1 Deadly Communion
The opening view over Vienna has Stephansdom cathedral as the central landmark.
(Empress Maria Theresa)
We then zoom in to see a location familiar from previous seasons, but which doesn’t play any further role in the episode: the Naturhistorisches Museum (where Amelia Lydgate works and which featured significantly in Season 2’s final case).
The statue in that brief scene is of Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780). The 1888 monument in her honour sits on Maria-Theresien-Platz square, with the museum behind it.
The fashion house
(The Loos house is on the left. Haydn used to live in the house on the right!)
The Loos House stands in for the exterior shots of the fashion house run by Kristina Vogl. (The interior is Hazai Bank in Budapest.)
This relatively unassuming building lies on Michaelerplatz square right in the centre of Vienna and close to one entrance to the Hofburg palace complex.
A couple of times we see the square through the pillared front of the building.
(The view of Michaelerplatz from the Loos House)
Viennese society got quite a shock when the Loos House went up in 1912. The aggressively modern look represented a significant departure for the city centre.
The building’s design also contrasted sharply with the richly-appointed Habsburg residence opposite; much tutting presumably emerged from the Imperial chambers.
Street scenes
We only found two quick street scenes from Vienna.
(Griechengasse)
One is a look up Griechengasse just before Max and the Inspector arrive at the fashion house. This featured in the very first Vienna Blood episode too (and had us stumped for a long time).
(Sankt-Ulrichs-Platz)
The other is Sankt-Ulrichs-Platz, which appears before the scenes with the booth selling second-hand rings.
The funeral parlour
Towards the end of the episode, Max and the Inspector look for an employee of a funeral parlour. As they talk with the man’s employer, they pass through parts of the Zentralfriedhof cemetery.
(The St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery Church)
We see them walk through the arcaded area on the road that leads into the huge complex from the main entrance (Tor 2). In the background, you can also spot the dome of the cemetery church.
The Zentralfriedhof is open to visitors and provides a home to a number of illustrious names.
Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss are all buried in this cemetery, for example. We actually saw the location in the very first Vienna Blood episode too.
Episode 2 The God of Shadows
An early scene in Epsiode 2 shows Max in his workplace, with an aerial view of the hospital. This is the former Otto Wagner Hospital (now called Klinik Penzing) familiar to us from Season 1.
(The Kirche am Steinhof; press photo by Lisa Rastl and © Wien Museum)
A golden dome appears at the rear of the hospital grounds. Otto Wagner designed the Kirche am Steinhof in the early 1900s, and it now comes under the Wien Museum group of sites. A classic of Wiener Moderne and Jugendstil design, the building has been described as Europe’s first modern church.
Street scenes
As in the season’s first episode, we only get brief glimpses of Viennese streets.
(Griechengasse)
We see a carriage on Griechengasse again, this time coming toward us down the incline.
(The police headquarters)
We have a very brief shot of the front of the police station, which is the Vienna University Archive on Postgasse.
(Lagergasse)
And another quick shot of Lagergasse, which we also saw in the second case of Season 2.
Belvedere
Max and Clara sit together outdoors to discuss the case and how Clara might help. Behind them is a topiary-lined view up to a lovely-looking palace. This is the Belvedere complex (which appears again in the next episode).
(Belvedere gardens and Upper Belvedere palace. The photo shows Luise von Finkh (who plays Clara Weiss) and Matthew Beard (who plays Max Liebermann). Press photo by ORF/MR Film/Petro Domenigg)
The pair are at the lower end of the gardens with Upper Belvedere palace in the background. This Baroque beauty now houses one of Austria’s most prestigious art collections.
Upper Belvedere has numerous works by Gustav Klimt on display, for example, including this little treat.
Dr Ignaz Seipel Platz
(Dr Ignaz Seipel Platz. The composer Franz Schubert went to school in the building on the right of the picture)
Max and the inspector chase a suspect across Dr Ignaz Seipel Platz, a central square rich in history. For example, it has a Baroque Jesuit church first consecrated in 1631. Former university buildings from the 18th-century now house the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
I suspect the scene pays homage to The Third Man. The large shadow cast by a man carrying balloons mirrors a similar scene in that movie. The episode also has a sewer escape sequence!
This square lies very close to two locations familiar to us from earlier seasons:
- The outside shots of Oskar’s police station (see above)
- The Schönlanterngasse street that featured in Episode 2 of Season 1 and Episode 1 of Season 2(!)
(Jesuitengasse)
Max and the inspector leave the square and find a dead man in a narrow alleyway: Jesuitengasse runs down one side of the Jesuit church.
Michaelerplatz
The Michaelerplatz makes another appearance in Season 3 toward the end of this episode, when Max and Oskar wander around discussing the case. The area is one of Vienna’s oldest: you can still see Roman excavations there today.
(Michaelerplatz square, with the Hofburg entrance on the left)
Max and Oskar pass the fountain you can see on the very left of the photo above. They then appear in the courtyard reached from Michaelerplatz inside the Hofburg palace complex.
The Hofburg
(The Schauflergasse Hofburg entrance)
The Hofburg is the former residence and administrative centre of the Habsburg dynasty and full of well-known tourist attractions like the Sisi Museum, Spanish Riding School and Schatzkammer imperial treasury.
Our pair enter the Innerer Burghof courtyard through the gates leading off the centre of Schauflergasse (so not via Michaelerplatz!). We then get a lovely view of the Hofburg’s 17th-century Leopoldinischer tract:
(The Leopoldinischer tract)
We also see a large monument featuring several statues:
(The monument to Emperor Franz)
This is the 1846 monument to Emperor Franz II/I (1768-1835), with the man himself at its centre dressed in Roman attire.
Franz’s name often comes with two numerals after it. The II refers to his reign as Holy Roman Emperor (which ended with that empire’s dissolution in 1806). The I refers to his reign as Emperor of Austria (which was founded in 1804).
So Franz had the joy of being a double Emperor for a short while. A joy tempered, however, by Napoleon running rampage around Europe.
Episode 3 Death is now a Welcome Guest
The final case features relatively few exterior Viennese shots as far as we can tell.
Familiar scenes
We catch brief glimpses of streets and locations that we also saw in previous seasons and episodes. One is Buchfeldgasse, where Max and Oskar alight from a carriage.
(Buchfeldgasse featured heavily in S2E2)
We get another aerial view of Max’s hospital. And a quick view up Lagergasse again. Max and Oskar also walk around the corner of Schönlaterngasse.
(The archway is closed in the episode. Schönlaterngasse also appears in seasons 1 and 2)
When Oskar travels to speak with Strasser, we see him and some cavalry outside the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum and a shot of the entrance hallway. You can see this fellow in the shot:
(Statue outside the museum)
In contrast to Season 2, Episode 2, the unfortunate Strasser seems to have moved to a less salubrious office.
Belvedere Gardens
Belvedere returns twice in this final episode.
(The landscaped Belvedere gardens)
In one scene, Oskar and Therese walk through the gardens, and the episode more or less ends with Max and Oskar doing the same. You’ll spot the exact locations at the lower end of the area, close to Lower Belvedere palace and (I think) the northeast exit on to Rennweg.
And that concludes a brief foray into the Vienna of Season 3.
Season 4?
The good news is there should be a Season 4 of some kind. Fingers crossed for more Viennese scenes (I’m hopeful, since the authorities now offer a very attractive package to filmmakers that has seen several high-profile productions filmed here recently).
Indeed, a press release that crossed my desk noted that filming for a two-parter each of 90 minutes began in early August 2023 with a 2024 screening date.
The release also mentions shooting locations include Upper Belvedere again, as well as the main university and Stephansdom cathedral. And the underground lake at Hinterbrühl in the province of Lower Austria.