Hotels near Zentralfriedhof

The Zentralfriedhof is one of the largest cemeteries in Europe, covering 2.5 square kilometres with around 330,000 graves, and it reads as parkland more than burial ground. Opened in 1874, it holds the Ehrengraber, the honorary graves of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Gluck, the Strauss family and Salieri, grouped in Group 32A, with a memorial to Mozart whose actual grave is elsewhere. The Art Nouveau Karl Borromaus church at the centre was completed in 1911.

October is the month to walk it. The avenues of mature trees turn through the middle of the month, deer and hares live in the older overgrown sections, and around All Saints on 1 November the whole cemetery fills with candles. Entry is free and there are several gates; Tor 2 is the one nearest the composers. The site is big enough that a bus runs inside it.

Pro Tip: Get off tram 71 at Tor 2, not Tor 1, which puts you on the main avenue with the composers five minutes ahead. Then walk on to the old Jewish section by Tor 1, left deliberately unrestored and overgrown, which is the most affecting part of the site in autumn.