You might think of Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) as a Mittteleuropa Walk of Fame. Some of the city’s most important figures are buried in this graveyard that opened in 1874, from Beethoven (his remains were moved here in 1888) to 1980s pop star Falco, with Brahms, Schubert, and Schoenberg in between. The cemetery, which measures almost one and a half square miles, has a section for Austria‘s presidents, and another for Sephardic Jews who came from the Ottoman Empire—the elaborate Alhambra-style Elias family mausoleum is especially impressive. Thanks to shady groves of maple and ash and a beautiful church constructed in the early-20th-century Jugendstil style, it is worth the effort to travel to Simmering, a neighborhood southeast of the city center—even if only for the bucolic setting.
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Vienna's Central Cemetery
Vienna’s Central Cemetery is a storied place where great names like Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss can be found on the headstones. Over 3 Million people lie interred here, making it the cemetery with most interred world-wide. The many small chapels and crypts make for a stunning addition to the landscape of ivy-covered grave-stones. Take an afternoon stroll through the cemetery and feel the stories contained here permeate the air.
