This post is mainly about my favourite shops in the Innere Stadt (the city centre inside the Ring) but also partly about the monuments and buildings we pass on the way. I’ve tried to keep them in geographic order so they can be viewed as part of a walk. You’ll find everywhere I mention on my city map here, and there’s an Innere Stadt map here.
I love the beautiful Art Nouveau angels on the beautiful façade of Apotheke Zum Weißen Engel at 9 Bognergasse, a couple of doors down from Zum Schwarzen Kameel (a good watering hole to begin or end your walk at).
Right next door is this fairy tale castle masquerading as a linen goods store on the corner of Bognergasse and Irisgasse.
This lovely Art Nouveau statue is on the Chanel building, on the corner of Tuchlauben and Bognergasse.
Just around the corner at 19 Graben is the gastronomic temple that is Julius Meinl am Graben.
Meinl is a famous Austrian company that was founded in 1869. Their chain of coffee shops once extended throughout the Austro-Hungarian empire.
The company symbol is a little Moorish boy wearing a fez which seems rather anachronistic in this day and age.
This is their flagship store at the end of Graben, one of the poshest shopping streets in Vienna. It’s a huge delicatessen supermarket with two floors of Austrian and international products. Videos here and here will give you an idea of the scale.
There’s also a wine bar in the cellar with a fantastic selection and a restaurant with sweeping views over the streets below. One of my regrets is not finding the time to eat here.
Just up the road at Kohlmarkt 1 is the impressive frontage of Manz, the famous stationer and book store.
At 19 Pestsäule is the Plague Column, a high baroque pyramid with statues of saints fervently thanking God for delivering the city from an outbreak of the Black Death in 1679 which killed upwards of 150,000 people.
It took a team of famous artists nearly ten years to carve it.
Not far away at 26 Kärntner Strasse is a shop called J. & L. Lobmeyr which has been selling modernist furniture, jewellery and ceramics since 1903.
However they are particularly famous for their glassware and chandeliers, some of which grace the Boston Opera. Drinking glasses by famous designers Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos are some of their bestsellers but they don’t come cheap.
Down the road at 6 Kärntner Strasse is Österreichische Werkstätten, the modern successor of Wiener Werkstätte a famous Viennese Art Nouveau and Art Deco design and production company, co-founded by Josef Hoffmann. I was a little disappointed by the goods on offer but there are a few nice pieces in the store.
There are chocolate shops all over town but the window display of Bonbons Anzinger at 7 Tegetthoffstraße (near the Sacher Hotel) looked particularly nice.
And that was enough shopping for me! Time for some culture…