Crossroads (and cables) at Siebensterngasse
Neubau, Vienna's creative seventh district, brings together what we love most about the city: spy movie aesthetics, neighborhood atmosphere and vintage shopping.
To Neubau, the most bohemian district of Vienna, You have to go with a camera on your shoulder, if possible a retro one and, if you have the budget, let it be a Leica.
Like a greyhound in a hipster neighborhood, the camera confirms that you know where you've come from and that, even if you are just passing through, this neighborhood could well be yours.
And you would love it to be, because folks, in Vienna there is life (and a lot of it) beyond the Ringstrasse, and Neubau, in the middle of District 7, is the best example of this.
Jugendstil architecture on the Fillgraderstiege stairs
The MuseumsQuartier It is the cultural border that marks the limit of the neighborhood to the northwest. Where once there were mountains of horse manure in the old imperial stables, today the sweet aroma of art is breathed in one of the largest cultural complexes in the world with five glittering museums.
Among them, the fascinating Leopold Museum, where you will enjoy the work of the great Egon Schiele, the expressionist forerunner of selfies.
In the MuseumsQuartier square the open-air party continues between the baroque buildings and the avant-garde architecture of the Mumok on the terraces, restaurants and in the concerts with which Vienna takes off its coat and welcomes spring.
This autumn, in addition, the opening of the futuristic terrace MQ Libelle, designed by Laurids Ortner on the roof of the Leopold Museum. After a good shot of museums, the body asks you for a street.
Max Brown Hotel Room
It's time to get into flour strolling through Neubau. Here is the most bohemian and cool Vienna. More Berlin than Prague, more alternative and less pretentious than the Innere Stadt (historic center). Conscientious, creative and fun, you have plenty of reasons to make Neubau your center of operations.
The newly opened Max Brown boutique hotel fits the neighborhood like a glove. In the room, a retro record player, some 70s soul vinyls and a red plastic phone (we flew to Moscow) give us clues to the playful character of this hotel in the same urban line as his brothers in Berlin and Amsterdam.
Very arty and very cinematic, the hotel has a charming projection room with its chandelier and seats from an old theatre.
Photography, of course, is also present on the walls of the hotel with work by artists such as Renate Bertlmann, the first Austrian woman to have a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale and the only person in the world able to see the sexy side of condoms in her photos.
The main artery of the neighborhood is Burggasse. This venerable street (one of the oldest in Vienna) connects to District 1 and splits the neighborhood in half.
Here, the family-run silk and velvet workshops of two centuries ago have now been replaced by trendy cafes, indie boutiques and restaurants, but something of those times remains in the infinity of ateliers and design stores where it is sewn, carved and molded in front of the client.
In the little vinyl shop Records & Prints Machito's Latin jazz sounds. Your owner, alexander ach , is also a DJ and a collector of Latin music vinyl.
Near here, the store Irenaeus Kraus can barely hold the hundreds of copies of old posters on its walls, curled up in boxes or spread out on the floor. Botanical studies from the beginning of the 20th century, details of the digestive system of a cow, human anatomy posters, world map with countries that no longer exist.
Ach Schuh at his Records & Prints vinyl shop
on the other sidewalk, the rhythmic sound of a legendary Heidelberg Original is the soundtrack to Handdruck's shop, where old treatises on zoology and cooking manuals are reproduced on sheets, cloth bags and t-shirts.
In the bookshop Zum Gläsernen Dachl Reading sessions and intimate concerts are organized surrounded by wooden shelves and second-hand books.
Bohemia of the good and places with soul, like the Bar Expresso, with its 50s aesthetic and chipped (on purpose) interior where old-timers from the neighborhood and new neighbors come together.
Spittelberggasse is possibly the most old-fashioned street in the area. Cobblestones on the road and facades from 1900 adorned with moldings and pastel colors, ocher and yellow.
Vintage prints at Handdruck.
near here is the church of San Ulrich, destroyed and rebuilt up to two times, and the narrow narrow streets of St Ulrich Platz , dotted with small restaurants and cafes that transport us at a stroke to neighborhood Vienna, coquettish but without the opulence of the Innere Stadt.
Strolling aimlessly through the neighborhood, on both sides of the Burggasse, is one of Neubau's pleasures. In every corner there are surprises like the glass shop Glashütte Comploj, with its workshop where the glass vases and bowls for sale are blown and shaped.
In other spaces, local talent allies itself in collectives of artists and designers such as the Die Werkbank (specializing in graphic art and lamps) and the Park (480 square meters of pure fashion).
Of course, here everything new goes hand in hand with the old and vintage clothing stores are also part of the urban setting. The most stylish, without a doubt, Burggasse 24 and the select section of vintage garments in the concept store Uppers & Downers.
Stuffed heron in the Irenaeus Kraus store
The camera on the shoulder now comes in handy to give the hit walking through the photo shops and galleries on Westbahnstrasse. Even more so when we enter the Westlicht Museum of Photography , the temple of 35 mm where, a couple of years ago, the oldest and most expensive camera in the world (a Leica O-series 122) was auctioned off.
Among his collections of photographic gadgets, he draws attention a photographic plate of men on dragons from 1850, worthy of RuPaul's Drag Race, and a “torture” chair where he can endure, without moving a muscle, the hours of long exposure of the first portraits.
It's lunch time and Zollergasse is the gastronomic street of the neighborhood , with an offer that ranges from the healthy food that the 'Neubauites' of Health Kitchen until the classic Wiener Schnitzel, the Viennese Schnitzel from Meissl & Schadn, going through ethnic food with places like chinese bar and the delicious Vietnamese Gasthaus Sapa.
For something more modern, the restaurant Ulrich, on one of the most beautiful squares in Neubau , is the favorite choice of young gourmets.
Hornig Coffee Shop Barista
After lunch, his thing is a coffee and Neubau has more than enough of that. Furniture stores that are cafeterias, such as Das Möbel , cafes that are boutiques, such as the Wolfgang Coffee , places like the Vollpension , where the cakes are made by grandmothers, and signature coffees with à la carte roasting like in Wiener Rosthaus.
But if yours is imperial nostalgia, a Sacher cake by a window, watching a game of pool in the atmospheric Café Sperl , you will know Sissí Empress.
On the aimless journey through the streets of Neubau you will find another jewel of the neighborhood: the Admiral Kino, one of the oldest cinemas in Vienna, open since 1913, with its ambigu from another era, a symbol of resistance in the era of multiplexes and Netflix.
It's dinner time and there is little doubt. we could recommend the impeccable selection of wines and vegetarian-chic food at Tian Bistro or the good vibes and good music at Ungar Grill.
A wiener schnitzel, the Viennese schnitzel
But, fortunately, you don't have to choose because all that and much more is what the restaurant offers Seven North . The most fashionable place in Neubau and perhaps in all of Vienna is the latest project of the enfant terrible of Israeli cuisine, Eyal Shani.
Space, with large tables designed for sharing and an open kitchen reminiscent of the premises of the Meat Market in New York , becomes a real party at dinner time.
Boards brimming with roast beef, delicious lamb shawarma and roasted cauliflowers served to klezmer music. Add and continue in a restaurant where you can eat the Mediterranean inside the most bohemian neighborhood of Vienna.
*This report was published in the number 141 of the Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (September) . Subscribe to the printed edition (11 printed issues and a digital version for €24.75, by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website). The September issue of Condé Nast Traveler is available in ** its digital version to enjoy it on your preferred device. **