The Leopoldstadt grew over the Unterer Werd, the site of the 17th-century Jewish ghetto, and its largest synagogue stood here until the November pogrom of 1938. The walk goes from the Nestroyhof theatre house and the site of the Leopoldstadt synagogue to the deportation 'collection flats' of the Kleine Sperlgasse, through the Karmelitermarkt and into the Baroque Augarten with its porcelain manufactory and two Second World War flak towers.
Best time: Daytime; see the Karmelitermarkt while its stalls are open.
The route, stop by stop
- 1Nestroyhof
Praterstraße 34 / Tempelgasse 1. Built 1898 to plans by Oskar Marmorek and named after Johann Nestroy. Its halls served as theatre, dance hall and cinema; from 1927 the Jewish ensemble 'Jüdische Künstlerspiele' played here. In the house that stood here before, the 15-year-old Johann Strauss father first played in public in 1819 with Josef Lanner. 10 min
- 2Leopoldstädter Tempel memorial
Tempelgasse 3-5. The largest synagogue of the Leopoldstadt (opened 15 June 1858, 2,000 seats and 1,500 standing places) was destroyed in the November pogrom of 1938 and pulled down in 1958. Four columns by Martin Kohlbauer recall its towers; the building at No. 5 houses the Esra centre for Holocaust survivors and their families. Several plaques line the site. 15 min
- 3Kleine Sperlgasse
Stop by the school building at No. 2a. The Kleine Sperlgasse, with the Castellezgasse and Malzgasse, was one of the 'last places before deportation': the Nazi regime crowded Jewish Viennese into 'Sammelwohnungen' here, and most of them were murdered in the Holocaust. 10 min
- 4Karmelitermarkt
One of Vienna's oldest markets: Leopold I granted a weekly market in 1671 after the expulsion of the Jews from the Unterer Werd. On its present site between Im Werd, Haidgasse, Leopoldsgasse and Krummbaumgasse since 1910; since 2000 the area has become a sought-after neighbourhood, the 'Karmeliterviertel'. 30 min
- 5Augartenpalais
Obere Augartenstraße 1. A garden palace built before 1692 for Zacharias Leeb, attributed to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach; home of the Vienna Boys' Choir since 1948. Enter the Augarten here. 10 min
- 6Augarten Porcelain Manufactory
In the old Augarten palace, a hall built around 1705 by Joseph I on the ruins of the imperial 'Favorita' burnt in 1683; the Vienna porcelain manufactory has been here since 1923. 20 min
- 7Flakturm Augarten
Two concrete flak towers almost 50 m high, a gun tower (Gefechtsturm) and a control tower (Leitturm), pair VII of the three Vienna pairs, built in the park during the Second World War; Italian military internees worked on the site in 1944. Both still stand among the chestnut avenues. 15 min
More walks in Vienna
- Imperial Vienna: cathedral to crypt
- Ringstraße: Opera to Votivkirche
- Otto Wagner and the Secession around Karlsplatz
- Roman and Jewish Vienna to Otto Wagner's bank
- Landstraße: Stadtpark to the Belvedere
- Schönbrunn: palace, Gloriette and Palm House
- Red Vienna: the council superblocks of the Margaretengürtel
- Heiligenstadt: Karl-Marx-Hof to Beethoven's village
- Nussdorf vineyards to the Kahlenberg (Stadtwanderweg 1)
- Along the Danube Canal: Urania to Otto Wagner's weir