Located between the bustling Ringstrasse and Innere Stadt, Burggarten is one of the most famous parks in central Vienna and a stop on many sightseeing tours of the city’s old town. Designed in 1818 as a private Habsburg garden, it was transformed into a public park after the empire's fall. Its English layout incorporates several statues, notably of Mozart, fronted by a musical clef-shaped flower bed. There are also statues honoring Goethe and Emperor Franz Joseph, a small pond, bench-lined walking paths, and expansive lawns where locals relax and picnic on fine days. The park's highlight is the Palm House (Palmenhouse), an elegant 19th-century glass pavilion filled with tropical plants where Vienna’s Butterfly House and a popular cafè are located.
Burggarten is a short walk away from several top sights in Vienna, making it a convenient break from sightseeing for families with kids.
The Palmenhouse Café serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner at indoor and outdoor tables seven days a week. There is an access ramp for wheelchairs and strollers.
A small portion of the park is used to house outdoor paddocks for the Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School, so you may be able to spot Vienna’s famed white horses during your visit.
The garden is crisscrossed with well-maintained gravel paths that are fully accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.
There are three entrances to Burggarten, one from the busy Ringstrasse, one from Goethgasse, a block from the Opera House, and one from Hanuschgasse just behind the Albertina. The park is a quick walk from most of the top sights in the Innere Stadt old town; take metro lines U2 (Museumsquartier station), U3 (Herrengasse station), or U4 (Karlsplatz station) to reach the park from other parts of the city.
The park is open daily from the early morning to late into the evening (the park closes when the Palm House restaurant closes after dinner service) but is particularly lively during the lunch and dinner hours when locals and tourists gather at the park cafè or picnic on the lawns.
In addition to its frothy baroque architecture, Vienna is known for its multiple historic city parks, all impeccably maintained and located within striking distance from the top sights. Burggarten and the neighboring flower-filled Volkgarten are two of the most central, while Stadtpark, Belvedere, and Augarten sit along the edges of Vienna’s old town.
