Stadtpark

The Stadtpark is Vienna's most picturesque central park and the easiest free sight to fit into any day. It opened in 1862 on the land freed when the city walls were torn down to make way for the Ringstrasse, which makes it the oldest public park of the Ring era, and it was laid out in the romantic English landscape style, with winding paths, a pond, lawns, flowerbeds and fine old trees. The star attraction is the gilded bronze statue of Johann Strauss II, the Waltz King, playing his violin within a white marble arch of swirling, dancing figures; unveiled in 1921, it is one of the most photographed monuments in the world, and you will rarely find it without a small crowd. Around the park are more monuments than in any other in the city, many of them to musicians, which turns a stroll into a quiet tour of Viennese music: Franz Schubert in white marble, Anton Bruckner, operetta composer Franz Lehar and Robert Stolz, alongside the painter Hans Makart and the mayor under whom the park was created. On the southern side stands the Kursalon, an Italian Renaissance-style building of the 1860s originally built as a spa pavilion, where Johann Strauss himself conducted, and which still hosts concerts and events, with a flower clock in front that is replanted every year. The Wien River, which runs underground beneath the Naschmarkt, emerges into daylight in the park through a monumental Art Nouveau river portal, part of the Jugendstil river works and, together with Otto Wagner's elegant Stadtpark U-Bahn station beside it, one of the best places in the city to see Vienna's turn-of-the-century architecture in a single glance. The river divides the park into two parts, joined by bridges, with a children's area on the eastern side.

How to visit: the park lies on the Parkring, on the eastern edge of the old town between the Schwarzenbergplatz and Wien Mitte, with the U4 at Stadtpark station right beside the river portal and trams along the Ring. It is free and open around the clock, and a full loop takes about an hour at a gentle pace. Start at the Strauss monument for photographs, ideally early in the morning when the light is soft and the crowds are thin, then follow the paths past the pond to the Schubert monument and the Kursalon, and finish at the river portal and the Otto Wagner station.

Making the most of it: the park is lovely in spring, when the flowerbeds and blossoming trees are at their best, and on summer evenings, when the Viennese gather on the lawns and benches. In winter the paths are quiet and the gilded Strauss glows against the bare trees. For music lovers, the Kursalon's evening concert programmes of Strauss and Mozart make a natural follow-on, and the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein are a short walk away. Ducks on the pond and the playground on the eastern side keep children happy.

Who it suits: everyone, but especially first-time visitors looking for an easy, free photo stop on the Ringstrasse; music lovers, for the monuments; couples on a slow evening walk; and families with small children who need a break between museums. It pairs naturally with the Ringstrasse tram ride, Haus der Musik a few minutes' walk away and the coffee houses of the inner city, and it is the perfect place to sit for a while between sights. Bring a coffee from one of the kiosks or a pastry from a nearby bakery, find a bench by the pond and watch the city go by, which is exactly what the Viennese have been doing here for more than a century and a half.