Stadtpark

The Stadtpark opened in 1862 on the old glacis outside the walls and was the first park the city laid out for public use rather than opening from a royal estate. It was designed in the English landscape manner, with the Wien river running through the middle - canalised in the 1900s under Otto Wagner's scheme, whose Stadtpark portal and pavilions are part of the same programme of works. The park is full of monuments to composers and artists, the reason being that this was where the nineteenth-century city put them: Schubert, Bruckner, Lehár, Makart and, above all, the gilded bronze Johann Strauss the younger of 1921, playing his violin under a marble arch, which is the single most photographed statue in Vienna. The Kursalon holds tourist concerts of the Strauss repertoire.

What you actually see

• The gilded Strauss statue - the 1921 bronze under its marble arch.
• Vienna's first public park - opened 1862 on the old glacis.
• Wagner's river portal - the Stadtpark works from the Wien regulation.
• Composer monuments - Schubert, Bruckner, Lehár and others through the grounds.

When to go

April to October for the planting; the park is open all year. An hour or two.

Honest expectations

The Strauss statue has a queue for photographs most of the day. Concerts advertised in the park are tourist programmes, not the Musikverein. The Wien river below is a concrete channel.

Nearby

The MAK, the Ring and the Konzerthaus are all a short walk.