St Stephen's Cathedral and the Innere Stadt: A Walking Route

Most visitors walk the broad pedestrian axis of Kärntner Straße, Graben and Kohlmarkt between the State Opera and the Hofburg, find it packed, and assume they have seen the 1st district. Step two streets to either side and the Innere Stadt turns into a quiet network of medieval lanes, cobbled squares and vaulted passageways. This 3 km route takes about three hours on foot.

1. St Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom). Start at the city's geographic centre. Look up at the 230,000 glazed tiles forming the Habsburg double-headed eagle on the steep roof. Inside, the central nave is free up to the grille, while a combined or individual ticket unlocks the rest: the 136-metre Gothic South Tower (Steffl), climbed via 343 narrow spiral steps to a tiny watch-room; the North Tower, where a lift takes you to an open-air platform beside the 21-tonne Pummerin bell; and the guided descent into the catacombs beneath the chancel, where wooden pews sit above the ducal burial vaults and the bones of thousands of plague victims.
2. Domgasse and the Figarohaus. Behind the cathedral at Domgasse 5 is the only surviving Vienna apartment of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, where he lived from 1784 to 1787 and composed The Marriage of Figaro.
3. The Heiligenkreuzerhof and the Durchhäuser. Cross Lugeck and enter the Durchhäuser, historic interconnected courtyards that locals use as shortcuts. Pass through the 17th-century Heiligenkreuzerhof, owned by a Cistercian abbey, and down the cobbled lane of Schönlaterngasse past the house with the legend of the basilisk in a sandstone niche.
4. The Old University Quarter and Jesuitenkirche. Emerge on Dr.-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz. Step inside the Jesuit Church (Universitätskirche): its exterior is plain, but inside Andrea Pozzo's twisted marble columns and trompe-l'oeil painted ceiling dome create the illusion of a cupola where the roof is actually flat.
5. The Griechenviertel. Follow Sonnenfelsgasse and Griechengasse, where medieval stone arches brace the narrow gap between houses and the gilded dome of the Greek Orthodox Church rises beside Vienna's oldest tavern, the Griechenbeisl.
6. Hoher Markt and Judenplatz. Walk west across Hoher Markt (site of the Roman legionary camp Vindobona and the Art Nouveau Anker Clock, whose figures parade at noon) to Judenplatz. At the centre of the quiet square stands Rachel Whiteread's concrete "Nameless Library", its books turned spine-inward in memory of the 65,000 Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust, beside an underground museum exposing the ruins of a medieval synagogue destroyed in 1421.
7. Am Hof and Freyung. Continue through the wide squares of Am Hof and Freyung, passing the Palais Ferstel arcade (home to Café Central) and the Schottenstift abbey.
8. Graben, Peterskirche and Kohlmarkt. Loop back via Kohlmarkt (past the window of the Demel bakery) into the Graben, built over the old Roman ditch, with its gilded Plague Column of 1693 and the oval Baroque dome of St Peter's Church tucked just behind the street line.