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Walking into the narrow Piaristengasse from Josefstädter Strasse, the charming square on the left comes as a surprise. The Piaristenkirche Maria Treu (Maria Treu Church) here was built from 1719 onwards according to a design by Lukas von Hildebrandt. The dome’s frescoes in vivid colours are by the Austrian Baroque artist Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1752), while the column in front of the church, the Mariensäule, was installed in 1713 to express gratitude that a plague epidemic had come to an end.

In the unlikely setting of the Postsparkasse building (the post office savings bank) the architect Otto Wagner (see p109) implemented all his principles, combining functionalism within an appealing design. The square six-storey building, constructed in two stages between 1904 and 1912, has a plain façade of marble and granite. The stone panels are fixed to the external walls with metal rivets, which led to the building’s nickname “a box of nails” among locals. The solid-looking exterior, however, is contrasted by the light interior, covered with a glazed vault.

These huge barracks dominating the river bank were created to protect Vienna from attacks from outside the city as well as revolt from within, after the revolutions that took place across Europe in 1848. Together with two other military camps, the Rossauer base formed a strategic triangle. Work on the barracks, which were created in Windsor style, started in 1864 and was completed six years later. The barracks became the headquarters of the Vienna police after World War II.

Rudolf (1273–91) began the Habsburg rule in Austria.

This church boasts the title of Vienna’s oldest place of worship, built in the 9th century after the fall of Vindobona (see p40) as part of the settlements within the Roman city walls. The stone building was the city’s main church up until the end of the 12th century, when the Stephansdom became Vienna’s most important centre of worship. Both east windows date back to the 13th century and have survived the ages untouched as Vienna’s oldest works of stained glass.

Amalia Wilhelmina (1673–1742), the wife of Emperor Josef I, founded this monastery of the Salesian convent in 1717 in thanks for her recovery from smallpox. The architect Donato Felice d’Allio completed the complex with its eight courtyards in 1728 and, together with the Belvedere and Palais Schwarzenberg, it forms a fine Baroque ensemble. The dome is decorated with frescoes by the Rococo painter Antonio Pellegrini (1675–1741) showing Mary’s ascension to heaven. According to Amalia Wilhelmina’s will, her body is buried under the high altar, but an urn with her heart was placed inside her husband’s coffin in the imperial crypt on Neuer Markt.

At the heart of this charming cobbled square is Saint Ulrich’s Church, which is surrounded by a pretty ensemble of patrician houses dating back to various periods. At No. 5 is a rare example of a Renaissance house, while the Baroque edifice at No. 27 bears a statue of Saint Nepomuk, who gave the house its name, tucked away in a little niche. During the Turkish Siege of 1683 Kara Mustafa’s troops pitched their tents on this square.

The focal point of Schiller-platz, the square in front of the Academy of Fine Arts, is the statue of the poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller, sculpted by Johannes Schilling in 1876. Opposite is the Goethe monument, created by Edmund Hellmer in 1900 (see p55) as a tribute to the two great German-language writers.

This imperial Baroque palace with its stunning landscaped gardens is one of Vienna’s most spectacular and most visited sights (see pp36–9).

Composer Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951), the creator of the 12-tone music technique (see p59), has a striking modern cube as his gravestone, designed by the sculptor Fritz Wotruba.