Vienna has always been said to possess a morbid charm, and its inhabitants are said to have an ambivalent relationship with death. Perhaps no other place illustrates these traits of the Viennese soul better than the Vienna Central Cemetery. Almost 3 million people are buried there – just under twice the city’s population. So is Vienna more dead than alive?

At the heart of the cemetery stands Vienna’s largest Art Nouveau church, ‘St Charles Borromeo’, which is surrounded by magnificent and opulent mausoleums, as well as impressive Art Nouveau buildings. The peaceful flora and fauna make the Vienna Central Cemetery one of the city’s most beautiful parkland areas and one of its most visited attractions.

Yet the path to becoming a tourist attraction was a long one, and by no means a peaceful one. Before it opened in 1870, the cemetery enjoyed only moderate popularity amongst the local population. In particular, the long and arduous journey to get there meant that it was relatively little visited. The cemetery’s interdenominational nature also met with resistance from large sections of the Catholic population. Today, alongside the interdenominational ‘main cemetery’, there are numerous sections dedicated to every major faith. Vienna has, after all, always been a cultural melting pot.

The macabre sights of Vienna’s Central Cemetery

In order to restore the Central Cemetery’s tarnished image, the Vienna City Council decided in 1881 to establish a section for the graves of the honoured dead. Consequently, the remains of famous figures of the time were simply transferred to the new Vienna Central Cemetery. However, anyone searching for the grave of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be disappointed. Mozart was buried in a ‘simple unmarked grave’ – as was customary at the time – at the former St Marx Cemetery. The grave was therefore long considered lost, until its location was rediscovered in 1855 ‘with the greatest probability’. Consequently, there is only one memorial to Mozart at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

“In Vienna, you have to die first before they’ll celebrate you,” as another Austrian “Rrrrrrock idol” used to say whilst he was still alive: Hans Hölzel, alias Falco, shot to the top of the US charts with his song “Rock Me Amadeus” and thus became Austria’s biggest musical export hit of the 1980s. Following his sudden death in an accident – not entirely uncharacteristic for a pop star – he too found his final resting place at Vienna’s Central Cemetery, fittingly not far from Mozart’s monument.

Alongside famous figures from Austria’s turbulent past, the Central Cemetery is home to numerous other points of interest, such as war graves, the Presidential Crypt and memorials. Given its size of 2.5 square kilometres, visitors are even permitted to explore the cemetery by car, bicycle or horse-drawn carriage. There is even a public bus route that circles the cemetery – further evidence of the Central Cemetery’s small-town character.

Unfortunately, the Vienna Central Cemetery audio guide will no longer be available on the Hearonymus platform from the end of 2025.