A relaxed green retreat tucked beside the Hofburg, the Burggarten was once the private garden of the emperors and is now one of the most popular parks in central Vienna. Laid out in the English landscape style after an earlier formal garden was destroyed, it opened to the public in 1919 following the fall of the monarchy, and its lawns have been a favourite spot to lounge in the sun ever since. The park is dotted with monuments to figures associated with the imperial court, the best known being the marble statue of Mozart, set before a flowerbed often planted in the shape of a treble clef, which has become one of the most photographed spots in the city. Statues of the emperor Franz Joseph and the writer Goethe stand among the trees. At one edge rises the elegant Palmenhaus, a sweeping Art Nouveau glasshouse of iron and glass built in the early twentieth century, which today shelters a cafe and a butterfly house, adding a touch of conservatory glamour to the garden. Sheltered by mature trees and bordered by the grand buildings of the Hofburg and the Ringstrasse, the Burggarten offers a calm, leafy contrast to the busy streets and museums around it, drawing students, office workers and visitors alike. Its location could hardly be more central, directly behind the imperial palace and a short walk from the State Opera, the Albertina and the great museums, making it an easy place to pause between sights. Free and open through daylight hours, the park asks nothing of visitors but to slow down, and on a fine day its lawns fill with people enjoying a rare patch of green in the heart of the imperial city. The Palmenhaus cafe and the butterfly house keep their own hours and small charges, but the garden itself is open and free, an ideal spot for a rest in the middle of a day of sightseeing. The garden began life as a private imperial pleasure ground, replacing fortifications blown up by Napoleon troops, and only after the empire fell did it pass into public hands, a small symbol of the wider opening of royal Vienna to its citizens. Today it is as much a social space as a botanical one, where on warm afternoons students sprawl on the grass, families picnic and visitors rest in the shade of trees that have grown for a century behind the walls of the imperial palace.

Type: Outdoors

Address: Vienna, Austria

Opening Date: 01/01/1919