Kahlenberg

The Kahlenberg rises to about four hundred and eighty metres at the eastern end of the Vienna Woods, directly over the Danube and the city, and its place in history is fixed: on 12 September 1683 the relief army under Jan III Sobieski of Poland assembled on and around this ridge, mass was said in the chapel of St Joseph on the summit, and the attack downhill broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna. The chapel is now in the care of a Polish order and is full of memorials to that day. Beside it are a terrace, a restaurant and a transmitter mast, and the view runs over the whole city, the Danube, the Marchfeld and, on a clear day, the Slovak border hills. Vineyards run down the slopes towards Nussdorf and Grinzing, walked on the Stadtwanderweg paths.

History

The hill was uninhabited until the 18th century and was first called Sauberg or Schweinsberg, sow or pig mountain, after the wild pigs of its oak forests. Ferdinand II bought it from Klosterneuburg monastery in 1628, named it Josephsberg and let Camaldolese hermits build a hermitage, with a few houses around the chapel of St. Joseph; it took the name Kahlenberg only after Leopold I renamed the neighbouring hill Leopoldsberg. In 1683 King Jan III Sobieski of Poland launched his attack on the Ottoman army besieging Vienna from here, and around 1920 Albert Einstein, Otto Neurath and others first planned on the hill what became the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science (Wikipedia, Kahlenberg).

What's there

• The 1683 assembly ground - where the relief army formed before the descent.
• St Joseph's chapel - Polish-run, full of memorials to the relief of Vienna.
• A view over the whole city - the Danube, the Marchfeld and beyond.
• Vineyard slopes - running down to Nussdorf and Grinzing with marked paths.

When to go

All year; clear winter days give the longest view. Half a day.

Practical notes

Haze often cuts the view badly. The summit is a car park, restaurant and mast rather than a wild hilltop. Weekend buses are crowded. The neighbouring Leopoldsberg has the better outlook.

Nearby

Leopoldsberg is the next summit; Grinzing and Nussdorf are below.

Key facts