Vienna is one of the most photogenic cities in the world. I bet that everyone finds something to photograph here. Be it modern architecture, century old buildings from Austria’s imperial time or beautiful spots in one of the hundreds of parks in Vienna.

As I live in Vienna, I’ll be updating this blog post occasionally to show you the most beautiful and spectacular photo locations in Vienna for your next trip.

Table of Contents

The Best Photo Spots in Vienna for the Daytime
The Best Photo Locations for Architecture Photography in Vienna
The Best Photo Spots for Night Photography in Vienna

The Best Photo Spots in Vienna for the Daytime

The Roman Ruin in the Palace Gardens of Schönbrunn Palace

We begin the journey at Castle Schönbrunn, the former summer residence of the Habsburg rulers. Facing the Gloriette, walk towards the fountain. Right in front of the basin, turn left and walk through the Castle Gardens for a minute or two. Then, you'll see a fountain ruin to the right.

Originally named the Carathago Ruins, it's now called the Roman Ruin. But it's not a fountain that decayed over the centuries. It was built this way in 1778. Allegedly, making things as a ruin was an art trend back then that originated in England.

I took the photo with an iPhone Xs. Today, I'd use the ultra-wide lens for this photo spot, which the iPhone Xs didn't have back then.

Belvedere Palace

Another great photo spot in Vienna is Belvedere Palace. Once the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the palace became famous because the Austrian State Treaty, that re-established Austria as a sovereign state after World War II, was signed here.

In the photo above, you see the back of the Castle Belvedere, called Upper Belvedere. Behind the palace (called Lower Belvedere) is a vast garden with fountains and an artificial waterfall.

You'll find plenty of great photo spots here.

Votiv Church at the Ringstraße

Now we're moving towards the city center, where you'll find the Votiv Church, a Neo-gothic church in the heart of Vienna. Instagrammers love this photo spot in spring because of the cherry blossoms around the church.

But the church is also quite impressive from the inside. You can see more of the interior in an iPhone workflow tutorialthat I've written about how I photographed the inside of this Church. I shot this photo using the RAW image format on my iPhone.

Flak Tower at the Augarten

Three memorial-like buildings in Vienna commemorate the Second World War. I'm talking about the former flak-towers that were built as anti-aircraft gun towers to protect Vienna from allied air raids.

One of them is at the Augarten, a vast park, in the second district of Vienna.

We still have three pairs of these in Vienna. They were built to form a triangle around the first district. The six abandoned flak towers are so massive that they can't be demolished. The walls are up to 12 feet thick.

I’ve posted a dedicated article in the blog where I photographed all of the three flak tower pairs in Vienna.

Kaiserwasser in Vienna’s 22nd District

Kaiserwasser (engl. "Emperor's water") is a vast park and natural bathing area in Vienna. The lake-like area is a billabong of the Danube.

It's a great photo spot to photograph a reflection of the buildings belonging to the Vienna International Centre and the DC Tower. This photo location is also a great place to practice framing in photography. The bushes and trees form a great natural frame for the buildings of the Vienna International Centre.

This is a photo spot that you can visit all year. In fall, you get beautiful colors from the greens around the lake, and in spring, everything blossoms here.

The Best Photo Locations for Architecture Photography in Vienna

The DC Towers

The DC Towers (actually, the DC Tower number 1) is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna with a height of 820 feet. Its glass face is great for taking reflection photos of the sky like this one:

However, to get such a photo, you need to time it. You'll have a one-two hour window in the morning between 9 am and 11 am to get such a picture. It’s also a great place for artsy fine-art black and white photography. To learn more, please head to my blog post about how to convert a photo to black and white in Lightroom Mobile.

Modern Architecture in Quarter two

Quarter 2 (German Viertel zwei) is a neighborhood in the 2nd district of Vienna containing apartments and office buildings. The entire area contains some modern architecture, like the apartment building you can see below. What makes this an interesting photo spot is the artificial lake in the center of the neighborhood, which is great for taking reflection photos.

To get to Quarter 2, take the metro line U2 and get off at Krieau and head towards the ÖMV building. Behind it, you'll find Quarter 2.

Library at the University of Economics

I call this library the spaceship library because the interior somehow looks like a spaceship to me, and it looks intriguing from the outside, too. Note that this is not a public building, and thus you'll need to obtain a photo permit to take photos inside (like I did).

If you're already at the Quarter 2, it will take you only a 5 to 10-minute walk to get to the library.

I converted this photo into a high key edit. To learn how to do this, please check my blog post about how to create a high key edit in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

Headquarters of the Austrian automobile association

The headquarters of the ÖAMTC is located in the third district of Vienna. It's a ring-shaped structure with a helicopter landing pad on the roof. Personally, I find this photo spot more appealing during the night than during the day. However, during the day you may have the chance to take a photo when the helicopter takes off or lands.

To get this photo spot, take metro line U3 and get off at Erdberg. From there you should already see the building.

District Court of the Inner City of Vienna

I'm not sure if architecture experts would categorize this building as modern architecture, so I'll leave this to the reader. The building I'm referring to is the district court of the inner city of Vienna. What I found interesting at this photo spot is the contrast of red lower and the blue upper part of the building.

To get to the district court building, take either metro line U3 or U4 and get off at the Station Wien Mitte.

I took the photo using an iPhone Xs in 2019. Unfortunately, you'll encounter many power lines in front of the building, which I removed using Touch Retouch App. You can learn more about this app in my Touch Retouch review and my tutorial about how to remove power lines from a photo on iPhone.

The Best Photo Spots for Night Photography in Vienna

The Prater

The Prater is a vast recreational area and amusement park in Leopoldstadt, Vienna's second district. You'll find large parks for hour-long strolls and the famous amusement park with the iconic Ferris wheel.

When it's not too cold to take a ride in spring and fall, and it gets dark early, the Prater is an excellent spot for taking night photos of spinning rides. It's a great place to improve your long-exposure skills with iPhone.

The above photo shows the amusement ride named Tagada. Riders sit in a spinning, round bowl. During the ride, pneumatic arms push the bowl and the riders up and down.

I've also published a few tips explaining how to photograph fairground rides at night with iPhone.

The Narrow Streets in the first district

One of the best photo spots in Vienna is this (and other) narrow and sparsely illuminated streets in the first district. The best time to take photos here is late at night. During summer, that's after midnight. During the colder months, you can go there before midnight.

I took the above photo with an iPhone 4 using the iOS stock camera app. I applied the vintage look with Adobe Lightroom Mobile. To learn why I use Lightroom Mobile, please visit my Adobe Lightroom Mobile Review.

St. Francis of Assisi Church

The St. Francis of Assisi Church in Vienna looks like a fairytale castle and is located right near the Danube in the second district at the Mexicoplatz. It's one of the newer churches in Vienna. It was built to honor the 50th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria - the husband of Empress Elisabeth of Austria ("Sissi").

I took the photo during the blue hour. I used a ProCamera App widget containing a blue hour calculator to determine the beginning and end of the blue hour.

It was taken using an iPhone XS with Slow Shutter Cam App.

The Uniqa Tower

Uniqa is a major insurance company here in Austria. A few years ago, the company built its office tower right near the Danube called, you guessed it, the Uniqa Tower.

The tower is illuminated at night with ever-changing light scenes and is a great place to practice your night photography skills. Best photographed from the opposite side of the Danube canal (to get a beautiful reflection of the tower in the water)

The Film Casino

This one is a little secret among the best photo spots in Vienna. It's a rather old and vintage-style cinema in the fourth district of Vienna. It's challenging to get a good picture here. First, the street is relatively narrow here, and there's a crossing right before the cinema. The only good place to get a frontal shot of the facade is from a minor traffic island.

To capture the entire facade, you'll need a wide lens like the Moment Wide Lens I used for this photo or the new iPhone with the ultra-wide lens.

Taken with ProCamera App and iPhone XS.

The Imperial Hofburg

The Hofburg is the best-known photo spot in Vienna. It was the residence of the Habsburg family and the Austrian Emperor from the 13th century until the end of World War I. It's a huge area with beautifully illuminated historical buildings.

I took the above photo using the stock iOS camera app and night mode.

Fountain at Schwarzenbergplatz

The Schwarzenbergplatz is a well-known photo spot in Vienna. You'll find it in the third district. There, you'll find the Soviet War Memorial, built by the Soviets to commemorate the 18.000 Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of Vienna at the end of World War II.

Right in front of the memorial is a massive fountain with changing lights. I took these photos with an iPhone 11 Pro in night mode.

Michaelerplatz

This place is usually crowded with tourists, no matter when you go there. I took the photo below on a Sunday evening before the first lockdown of the pandemic began. To be able to fit the entire building into the frame, I used the Moment Fisheye Lens and then applied perspective correction.

It was truly spooky. I've never seen Vienna so empty. You could even hear the wind blowing through the empty streets.

The Karlskirche

During the 20 years since I moved to Vienna, I've never experienced this park to be empty. The church in the distance is the famous Charles Church, and usually, you'd always see a few people strolling through the park.

Volkstheater Metro Station

I've always wanted to take a photo of this metro station while it's empty. Now, this was almost the perfect time to do so. Only one person was sitting on a bench and waiting for the train.

The Vienna State Opera

Right in front of the State Opera, you'd always find hundreds of tourists and dozens of buses. Right in front is one of the busiest streets in Vienna, the ring-road. Standing there and taking a photo without any car passing by felt somehow like a scene from "The Walking Dead."

The Wiener Musikverein

Musikverein is a well-known concert hall in Vienna. Allegedly, the concert hall is perceived as one of the most beautiful concert halls with one of the world's best acoustics.

22 Iconic Photo Spots in Vienna for your next Trip

The Best Photo Spots in Vienna for the Daytime