St Stephens Cathedral

St Stephens Cathedral, the Stephansdom, is the symbol of Vienna and the centre of the city in every sense: the point from which distances are measured, the church where Mozart was married, and the landmark everyone uses to find their way in the Old Town. A Romanesque church stood here in the twelfth century, and its west front with the Giant's Door and the two Heathen Towers survives; the rest is mostly Gothic, rebuilt from the fourteenth century onward, with the soaring South Tower, the Steffl, completed in the 1430s and still one of the tallest church towers in Europe. Its most famous feature is the roof, covered with some 230,000 glazed tiles laid in zigzags and, on the south side, in the shape of the Habsburg double-headed eagle. Inside, the long nave holds treasures from Anton Pilgram's stone pulpit, where the sculptor peeps out of a window in a self-portrait, to the high altar and the tomb of Emperor Frederick III. The cathedral was badly damaged by fire in the last days of the Second World War and was rebuilt with contributions from every Austrian province, a story told through the new Pummerin, the great bell recast in 1951 that hangs in the North Tower. The entrance area at the back of the nave is free, but the full interior, the towers and the catacombs are ticketed. Climb the 343 steps of the South Tower to the old watch room for the finest view over the rooftops, or take the lift up the North Tower to the Pummerin and the view over the patterned roof. Below, a guided tour leads through the catacombs, where urns hold the entrails of Habsburg rulers and bones of plague victims lie in stacked chambers. The all-inclusive ticket covers the cathedral with an audio guide, the catacombs tour, both towers and the Dom Museum next door, and is the best value if you want the full experience.

Reading the building: walk around the outside first. The Giant's Door on the west front is the oldest part, the South Tower soars from the side, and the unfinished North Tower, capped with a Renaissance cupola, was abandoned in the sixteenth century when funds and the Gothic style ran out. On the walls, look for the old measures of the city and the Capistran pulpit, where a friar preached against the Ottomans. Inside, the free entrance area gives a fine view down the nave, but the guided or audio-guided visit takes you up to the high altar, the Wiener Neustadt altarpiece and the side chapels. Services take priority, so parts of the cathedral close to visitors during masses, especially on Sunday mornings and religious holidays.

Towers and catacombs: the South Tower climb is a narrow spiral, steady but tiring, and there is no lift; the reward is the panorama from the watch room, where fire watchers once stood guard. The North Tower has a lift, an easy ride to the Pummerin and an open-air platform among the coloured roof tiles. The catacombs tour lasts about half an hour, runs in English and German on a regular schedule, with no tours on Sunday mornings, and is genuinely atmospheric, with the ducal crypt and the copper urns of Habsburg organs, while the bodies themselves lie in the Imperial Crypt nearby. The Dom Museum, beside the cathedral, holds the treasury and an excellent collection of sacred and modern art.

Practical details: the cathedral stands on Stephansplatz, where the U1 and U3 lines meet, and is open daily, with visiting hours shaped by the service schedule. With the all-inclusive ticket, exchange your voucher for paper tickets at the Dom Museum desk next to the cathedral. Dress respectfully, keep voices low and expect pickpockets in the square. In the evening, look out for organ concerts and choral performances in the nave, and on New Year's Eve the Pummerin rings in the year, broadcast across Austria.