Vienna has 23 districts – how do you know which one you are in?
When I moved to Vienna, Austria almost seven years ago, I had already lived in four other countries and traveled to over 50 others.
Some for extended periods of time.
Now, I am not bragging about my “world traveler” status. Because… whatever.
But I am pointing out, having traveled all over the world and lived out of my birth country (the UK) for most of my life, you would think I would be more intelligent than I sometimes apparently am.
And I say that because, when I moved to Vienna, I had been here about two months when, on the phone to a friend who was on her way to meet me at a cafe, I was asked “What district is the cafe in?”
I had to admit I didn’t know.
It was then after, yes, two months already living in the city, my friend told me something everyone else in Vienna already knew.
How to find out what Vienna district you are in, out of the 23 districts that make up the Austrian capital city.
Something that is so ridiculously easy, I must be a bit of a dumbf*ck to have missed it.
How to find out what Vienna district you are in
And here it is.
Walking around Vienna, just about every block on every street has a sign on its corner telling you where you currently are in the capital city.
The sign will have a number and then the street name. (**Sometimes the number is in a Roman numeral eg: IX, so you will need to know your Roman numbers).
And yes, as obvious as it is, I missed it — the NUMBER on the sign is the number of the district you are in. Duh.
With most Viennese going by the district number rather than the name, telling anyone the number of the district you are in will help them get to you quicker.
So, the next time someone asks you “What Vienna district are you in?”, you only have to look for the number on the closest street sign.
Then you can answer “The Seventh”.
For even more information, here are the 23 Vienna districts and their names:
- Innere Stadt — the city centre or ‘Inner City’, usually known as ‘The First District’
- Leopoldstadt — The Second District…
- Landstraße
- Wieden
- Margareten
- Mariahilf
- Neubau
- Josefstadt
- Alsergrund
- Favoriten
- Simmering
- Meidling
- Hietzing
- Penzing
- Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus
- Ottakring
- Hernals
- Währing
- Döbling
- Brigittenau
- Floridsdorf
- Donaustadt
- Liesing
And now you know how to find out what Vienna district you are in? So damned easy, eh?
