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St Stephen's Cathedral

Ricardalovesmonuments, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Attraction · Vienna

St Stephen's Cathedral

The tiled roof is the thing — a quarter of a million glazed tiles in a diamond pattern, above a cathedral Vienna has been rebuilding since the twelfth century.

Time needed1 to 2 hours
Best timeEarly morning
South tower136 metres, 343 steps
CostNave free
About

The building Vienna measures itself from

The Stephansdom stands in the middle of the old city and has been added to for eight hundred years, which is why nothing about it is stylistically tidy. The Romanesque west front — the Giant's Door and the two Heathen Towers flanking it — survives from the thirteenth century; the Gothic nave and the great south tower came later. The south tower, known to the city as the Steffl, reaches 136 metres and is climbed by 343 steps with no lift. The north tower was never finished and holds the Pummerin, Austria's largest bell, recast in 1951 after the original was destroyed when the cathedral burned in 1945. The roof is the signature: about 230,000 glazed tiles laid in zigzags and coats of arms.

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What to See

What to look at

The exterior repays as much attention as the interior.

🔶 The roof

  • Roughly 230,000 glazed tiles in a diamond pattern, with the double-headed eagle on the north side
  • It is best seen from a distance or from the south tower, not from the square below

⛪ Inside

  • The Gothic nave, the pulpit with its carved portrait of the sculptor peering from beneath the stairs
  • The Romanesque Giant's Door at the west end, the oldest part of the building

🔔 The two towers

  • The south tower: 343 steps, a spiral stair, and the best view over the old city
  • The north tower: a lift, and the Pummerin bell at the top

🕯️ The catacombs

  • Beneath the cathedral, visited by guided tour only, and not for everyone
Getting There

Getting there

It is the centre of Vienna, and the U-Bahn station is named after it.

🚇 By U-Bahn

  • Stephansplatz, on lines U1 and U3, comes up directly beside the west front

🚶 On foot

  • Everything inside the Ring is within about fifteen minutes of the square

🎟️ Entering

  • The rear of the nave can be entered without a ticket; the main nave, the towers and the catacombs are each ticketed separately
Best Time

When to go

It is a working cathedral in the busiest square in the city.

🕰️ Time of day

  • Early morning is the only reliably quiet time inside
  • Evening light catches the south tower and the roof from the Stock-im-Eisen-Platz side

📅 Season

  • The square holds a Christmas market in December, which changes the approach entirely

⏱️ How long

  • An hour for the nave; two if you climb the south tower as well
Visitor Intelligence

Worth knowing

The two towers are not interchangeable, and most visitors climb one.

🪜 Which tower

  • South tower: 343 steps, no lift, narrow spiral, and the better view
  • North tower: a lift, the Pummerin bell, and a lower, more limited outlook

🎫 Ticketing

  • Nave, towers and catacombs are separate; a combined ticket exists and is worth it only if you intend all of them

🙏 It is in use

  • Services close parts of the building at short notice, and photography is restricted during them

🎻 Concert touts

  • Costumed sellers work the square hard; whatever they are selling is not connected to the cathedral
Nearby

Nearby

The rest of Vienna.

Schönbrunn Palace
Twenty minutes out on the U4
The Hofburg
A ten-minute walk west
Vienna
The city guide
Good to Know

Frequently asked

Both of them, differently. The south tower is 343 steps up a narrow spiral with no lift, and it gives the better view over the old city and along the tiled roof. The north tower has a lift and takes you to the Pummerin bell, with a lower and more enclosed outlook. They are separately ticketed, and most visitors pick one.
The rear section of the nave can be entered without a ticket, which is enough to see the scale of the interior and the west end. Going further into the nave, climbing either tower and visiting the catacombs are each ticketed. A combined ticket exists but only pays for itself if you genuinely intend to do most of them.
Around 230,000 glazed tiles, laid in a zigzag diamond pattern with the double-headed imperial eagle worked into the north side and the city arms on the south. It is the building's most photographed feature and the hardest to see properly from ground level in the square — the south tower climb or a wider view from further down the Graben both work better.
They are visited by guided tour only, and they hold both the ducal crypt and mass burials moved there when the city's graveyards were cleared. It is genuinely interesting and genuinely grim, and it is not a good fit for younger children or for anyone uneasy in confined spaces. It also runs to a fixed schedule, so it needs planning into the visit rather than added on.
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