Please note:

Not all paths are coated with tarmac or gravel
Sturdy shoes are recommended.

Car and bus parking in front of the main entrance (Gate 2)
How to get there by public transport

Tour 1: From Beethoven to Falco - Classical Overview Tour
Meeting point Gate 2

Our walk starts at the idyllic area of the graves of honour for Beethoven, Strauss, and Schubert an many other composers, and leads past the large common tomb for Austria’s presidents to the church. We shall also visit the church and move on to various other parts of the extensive cemetery, including Falco’s grave, and the woodland burial grounds.

Tour 2: Jews, Christians, and Buddhists - Interconfessional Tour
Meeting point Gate 1

The tour starts with a short overview of Vienna’s Jewish cemeteries. Additional information will be given about the Jewish calendar, burial rites, gravestone forms and symbolism. Passing the Buddhist part of the cemetery, we reach, after an hour, the Christian main sector where we visit the church and the most important graves of honour.

Tour 3: Viennese Characters - an „Off the Graves of Honour“ Tour
Meeting point Gate 2

Off the main paths are the graves of Basilio Calafati (a pioneer of the „Prater“), Alexander Girardi (still one of the most popular Viennese actors, more than 100 years after his death), or „Waluliso“ who preached love and peace long before the hippie movement. We will discover „talking grave stones“ such as the one of a preaching priest, and find Arnold Schönberg „with a real edge...“

Tour 4: Jewish Cemetery Gate 1
Meeting point Gate 1

The tour starts with a short overview of the history of the Jewish cemeteries in Vienna. Other topics will be the Jewish calendar, burial rites, gravestone forms and symbolism. On our walk we will view remarkable mausoleums, encounter famous names as well as lesser known ones, and hear the stories behind them.

Tour 5: „When Night Falls on Simmering...
Meeting point Gate 2

"... the dead awake to life...“ - that’s what the famous Viennese pop star Wolfgang Ambros sang on the occasion of the cemetery’s 100th „birthday“. Only at dusk do the candles in the lanterns really begin to shine, creating an eerily beautiful ambience, and many a well known grave appears quite different in the flickering light...

Tour 6: Medical History Written in Vienna
Meeting point Gate 2

Many famous medical scientists, amongst them a Nobel laureate, rest in graves of honour at the Central Cemetery. They bear witness to the pioneering so-called „Second Vienna School of Medicine“ in the 19th century. Naturopaths and hypochondriacs complete our view into the past. At the „New Anatomy“ burial area and some graves of noteworthy health care politicians we return to the present.

Tour 7: Unforgettable and Almost Forgotten Women
Meeting point Gate 2

In earlier days, women in the public eye were a rarity, with the exception of female artists, perhaps. But still, many of them can be found here: one of the fist female globetrotters and travel writers, for example, or Austria’s first female doctor. Come and discover the traces of unforgettable and almost forgotten women.

Tour 8: Killers, Culprits, Victims
Meeting point Gate 2

Without doubt, quite a number of the persons buried here died a violent death. Offenders, too, found their last rest at the Central Cemetery – like the assassin of the Empress Elisabeth, for example. Amongst the „victims“ one can find here the last two victims of the plague in Vienna, as well as several well known suicide victims.

Tour 9: Following the Traces of Fritz Wotruba
Meeting point Gate 2

The Viennese sculptor Fritz Wotruba was buried in a grave of honour, and many of his colleagues, friends and disciples can be found in the close vicinity of his grave. But Wotruba also created several gravestones and monuments on the cemetery, amongst them his own tombstone, the one for the dancer and millionaire Selma Kurz (which caused a scandal at the time), and the large cube on Arnold Schönberg’s grave.

Upon request, a photo puzzle hunt can be organized for school classes.
Tours will be adapted to the specific grade of the pupils (primary to secondary school)

I look forward to your inquiry!
hedwig.abraham@viennatouristguide.at
Mobile Phone: 0043 - 6991 - 812 44 23