St. Stephen’s Cathedral is a gorgeous church that gets upwards of 3 million visitors a year. We didn’t want to miss out so we checked it out while in Vienna last month!

Surrounded by modern architecture and the heart of the city, St Stephen’s Cathedral is not just a church that holds 17 services a week, according to its website Stephansdom, it is also a “world famous cultural heritage site and monument that stands up confidently to international comparison” and a “national emblem of Austria and a symbol of Austrian identity.”

We visited on a Sunday morning so we could see a service taking place. Tourists swarmed the outside of the building and souvenir shops and restaurants were all a stone’s throw away. It seemed to me that visitors were more welcome here than in other European cathedrals, especially in the middle of a busy Sunday, so that was nice (i.e. no one glared at us or the crowd, no angry-looking security guards).

St. Stephen’s Cathedral was mostly destroyed by the end of the World War II, but has been rebuilt beautifully.

My son thought the church bench looked just like Santa’s sleigh and announced that loudly for all to hear.

Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed and not very excited to recommend it on the blog. The architecture is gorgeous, for sure, but it didn’t seem that different from the 10-15 other huge, European cathedrals I have seen in the past. But then I did my research…

Guided tours of the catacombs beneath the building are available every day of the week and the cathedral archives, including genealogy records, births, deaths, etc. dating back to the early 1500s are all on-site.

Visitors can view the “treasures” of the church in the west gallery of the cathedral that have been returned after the re-opening of the church 60 years ago.

You can also take an elevator to the Plummerin (Eagle Tower – North Tower) or climb up the South Tower (343 steps) if you want to see over the rooftops of downtown Vienna. I sooo wish we would have known about that!

I also really loved the atmosphere outside the cathedral. Bicycles lazily leaned against stone walls, toddlers chasing pigeons on the cobblestone, modern buildings nestled up against gothic and baroque buildings built centuries ago. Now that I know about the history, tours, and towers, I would definitely go again.

Have you been to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna? I would love to hear about your experience!

As we left the Austrian National Library, we came across some horse-drawn carriages and right then I decided that I had always wanted to take a horse-drawn carriage tour of Vienna :) So we followed them until we could get our own and I’m so glad we did.

We got a 20 minute tour for 55 euros and there were a few fleece blankets in the carriage to wrap up with. The driver shared fun facts and important locations as we rode along.

My son wanted to know what the horses names were and the driver said that the black one’s name is “Obama” and the white one is “Putin,” and he laughed and laughed.

St. Peter’s Church is considered a Baroque masterpiece. The current building was built in 1723, but there has been a church in this location since the 4th century!

It was pretty chilly, but it was a really nice break from walking all over the city. Plus it was nice to know what we were seeing along with the history.

Inside this building you can see the Lipizzaner stallions perform in the baroque Winder Riding School on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

This was the library we first walked into thinking it was the State Hall (think Beauty and the Beast), but it’s actually just a library and study area for university students :)

The Vienna Rathaus (Town Hall) was built between 1872 and 1883 and designed by Friedrich von Schmidt.

There was so much gorgeous, gothic-looking architecture around the city. It would be really beautiful to do the horse carriage ride in the evening and see all the pretty city lights of Vienna.

This was one eccentric woman and I loved her so much I had to take a picture!

Here is a memorial plaque at House number 1 Milchgasse to honor and remember where Mozart composed his piece “Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail.”

This is the Graben and Plague monument, which commemorates the 1/3 of the Viennese population that died in 1679. It was erected as a thanks to God for the 2/3 of the population that lived through the Plague.

He wanted to keep his dinosaur from the Museum of Natural History warm :)

We had such a great time on the tour and I wished it was longer. They do have a longer tour but I felt that 55 euros was plenty ;) I’m so glad we ran across the horse drawn carriages – it was such a great experience and now a fun memory to have!