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VIENNA

Reader question: Which Christmas markets are still open in Vienna after the weekend?

Most Christmas markets close as soon as presents are open in Austrian households, but which ones can you visit after Xmas time in Vienna?

Published: 22 December 2022 16:41 CET
Updated: 25 December 2022 09:58 CET
Reader question: Which Christmas markets are still open in Vienna after the weekend?
Christmas market in Vienna / Karlsplatz (Österreich Werbung, Photographer: Harald Eisenberger)

One of the main attractions of the Austrian capital during the holiday season is Christmas markets. However, most of them usually close on or just after Christmas Day, leaving Viennese without their daily Glühwein dose for the remainder of the winter season.

While many, including the popular Weihnachtsdorf am Campus der Universität Wien will open for the last time this year on December 23rd, some are still open until December 26th and even beyond.

Here’s where to get you punsch and maroni after the Christmas celebrations are done.

READ ALSO: Five restaurants that are open over Christmas in Vienna

Viennese Christmas Market on City Hall Square

(Wiener Christkindlmarkt auf dem Rathausplatz)

November 19th – December 26th, 2022
10 am – 9.30 pm
December 24th-26th, 10 am – 6.30 pm
Rathausplatz, 1010 Vienna

www.christkindlmarkt.at

Plus, even after the stalls are closed, you can still enjoy some ice skating on Vienna’s most famous ring in front of the Rathaus.

Vienna Ice World at the Christmas Market (Eistraum am Christkindlmarkt:):

November 19th, 2022 – January 8th, 2023, daily from 10.00 am – 10.00 pm
December 24th, 10 am – 6.30 pm; December 31st, closed

Christmas Village on Maria-Theresien-Platz
(Weihnachtsdorf Maria-Theresien-Platz)

November 16th – December 26th, 2022
Su-Th 11 am – 9 pm, Fr & Sa 11.00 am – 10.00 pm
December 24th, 11 am – 4.00 pm
December 25th+26th, 11 am – 7 pm
Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Vienna

www.weihnachtsdorf.at

Christmas Village at Belvedere Palace
(Weihnachtsdorf Schloss Belvedere)

November 18th – December 26th, 2022
Mo-Fr 11 am – 9 pm, 10 am – 9 pm
December 24th, 11 am – 4 pm
December 25th+26th, 11 am – 7 pm
Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 27, 1030 Vienna

www.weihnachtsdorf.at

READ ALSO: Austrian Christmas traditions: The festive dates you need to know

Christmas Market Schloss Schönbrunn
(Kultur- und Weihnachtsmarkt Schloss Schönbrunn)

November 19th – December 26th, 2022
Daily from 10 am – 9 pm
December 24th, 10 am – 4 pm, December 25th+26th, 10 am – 6 pm
Schönbrunn Palace, 1130 Vienna

www.weihnachtsmarkt.co.at

Plus, a reduced, but lovely New Years’ Market (Neujahrsmarkt) opens afterward in the same spot: December 27th, 2022 – January 4th, 2023, 10 am – 6 pm

Christmas Market on Stephansplatz
(Weihnachtsdorf am Stephansplatz)

November 11th – December 23th, 2022
Daily from 11 am – 9 pm
December 24th, 11 am – 4.00 pm, December 25th+26th, 11 am – 7 pm
Stephansplatz, 1010 Vienna

www.weihnachtsdorf.at

READ ALSO: Christmas in Vienna: What times are shops open on December 24th?

Advent market at the Opera House
(Advent-Genussmarkt bei der Oper)

November 11th – December 31th, 2022
Daily from 11 am – 9 pm
December 24 closed, 31 December 11.00 am – 2.00 am
Mahlerstrasse 6, 1010 Vienna

www.adventgenussmarkt.at

Winter Market on Riesenradplatz
(Wintermarkt am Riesenradplatz)

November 11th, 2022 – January 8th, 2023
Mo-Fr 12 noon – 10 pm
Sa, Su & hols. 11 am – 10 pm
December 24th, 10 am – 5 pm, December 31st, 12 noon – 2 am
Riesenradplatz, 1020 Vienna

www.wintermarkt.at

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VIENNA

Could be wurst: Vienna sausage stands push for UN recognition

From top bankers and politicians to students and factory workers, Vienna's popular sausage stands heaving with bratwurst and meaty delicacies are a longstanding cultural legacy they hope to have recognised by UNESCO.

Published: 23 June 2024 08:31 CEST
Could be wurst: Vienna sausage stands push for UN recognition

The owners of 15 stands in the Austrian capital have formed a lobbying group and applied last week to have the “Vienna sausage stand culture” inscribed as intangible cultural heritage by the UN agency.

“We want to create a kind of quality seal for Vienna sausage stands,” said 36-year-old Patrick Tondl, one of the association’s founders whose family owns Leo’s Wuerstelstand — Vienna’s oldest operating sausage stand.

“At the sausage stand, everyone is the same… No matter if you’re a top banker who earns hundreds of thousands of euros or if you have to scrape together the last euros to buy a sausage… You meet here, you can talk to everyone,” he adds.

High inflation driving consumers looking for affordable meals, plus a new wave of vendors with updated flavours, have helped keep the stands busy.

Tondl’s great-grandfather started their business in the late 1920s, pulling a cart behind him and selling sausages at night.

The family’s customers have included former chancellor Bruno Kreisky, recalls Vera Tondl, 67, who runs the shop together with her son Patrick.

Leo’s is one of about 180 sausage stands in Vienna today, out of a total of about 300 food stands, selling fast food at fixed locations and open until the early hours, according to the city’s economic chamber.

Whereas the number of stands has remained similar over the last decade, more than a third have changed from selling sausages to kebabs, pizza and noodles, a spokesman for the chamber told AFP.

‘Momentum’

But sausage stands have seen a “mini boom” in customer numbers recently, according to Patrick Tondl.

Many have been drawn back to the stands by high inflation, where a meal can be had for less than 10 euros ($11) with lower overheads than restaurants.

New stand operators have also brought a “bit of momentum”, said Tondl, bringing the likes of organic vegetarian sausages with kimchi.

Tourists are already drawn in droves.

“When you come to Austria, it’s what you want to try,” 28-year-old Australian tourist Sam Bowden told AFP.

The cultural legacy of Vienna’s sausages is far-reaching, including the use of the term “wiener” for sausages in the United States, which is believed to have derived from the German name for Vienna, Wien.

However Sebastian Hackenschmidt, who has published a photo book on the stands, said the legacy of the “Vienna phenomena” is more complex.

He says that for many in multicultural Vienna, the sausage stands hold little appeal — equally for the growing number of vegetarians — and their universal appeal is something of a “myth”.

“Vienna is a city in great flux… With the influx of people, cultural customs are also changing,” Hackenschmidt told AFP.

Some 40 percent of Vienna’s two million inhabitants were born outside the country, where the anti-immigrant far-right looks set to top September national polls for the first time.

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