A Taste of Vienna is a time-lapse and hyperlapse portrait of the Austrian capital by Thomas Pöcksteiner and Peter Jablonowski of FilmSpektakel. In a few minutes it moves from famous palaces and churches to back streets, restaurants and the trams the Viennese call "Bim", all at a speed no visitor could manage on foot.

Vienna's illuminated cityscape at night – frame from A Taste of Vienna by FilmSpektakel
Vienna lit up at night. Photo: FilmSpektakel.

A Taste of Vienna by FilmSpektakel

The film is the second episode in the pair's independent "A Taste of…" time-lapse series. According to its credits, they spent about a week planning every frame and a full year producing it alongside paid film jobs and university, filling around 2 TB of hard drives. They shot with Canon cameras, including a 5D Mark III, Benjamin Bauernfeind created the sound design, and the project was supported by the City of Vienna.

Time-lapse compresses minutes or hours into seconds, so clouds, traffic and crowds flow around buildings that stand still. Hyperlapse adds a moving camera, carrying the viewer down a street or around a monument between shots taken on many different days.

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The Ringstrasse and the historic centre

Vienna, Austria's capital on the Danube, has about 2 million residents and nearly 2.9 million in its metropolitan area. For centuries it was the seat of the Habsburgs, and its historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. At its heart stands St Stephen's Cathedral, the Gothic mother church on Stephansplatz.

Around the old town runs the Ringstrasse, a 5.3 km boulevard laid out after Emperor Franz Joseph ordered the city walls demolished in 1857; building along it continued until 1913. Walk or ride it to see the State Opera, the Parliament, the City Hall, the Burgtheater, the University and the great art and history museums.

Trams, markets and coffee houses

The trams in the film belong to one of the largest networks in the world: about 227 km of routes on 28 lines, run by Wiener Linien. Horse trams began here in 1865, and a tram ride around the Ring is still the easiest way to take in the boulevard.

For food, head to the Naschmarkt, which stretches for about 1.5 km along the Wienzeile above the Wien River. It was called the Aschenmarkt until around 1820, its first pavilions went up in 1902, and since 1977 a flea market has joined it every Saturday.

Then sit down in a coffee house. Viennese coffee house culture was added to Austria's inventory of intangible cultural heritage under UNESCO in 2011. Every coffee comes with a glass of water, newspapers are provided, and you can stay for hours. Café Central, Café Sperl, Café Hawelka and Café Landtmann, Sigmund Freud's favourite, are classics.

Schönbrunn Palace

Plan a separate half-day for Schönbrunn in Hietzing, the 13th district. The Baroque palace, with 1,441 rooms, was the main summer residence of the Habsburgs, and together with its gardens it has been on the UNESCO list since 1996. Climb to the Gloriette on its 60-metre hill for the view back over the palace, and visit Tiergarten Schönbrunn, which claims to be the oldest zoo in the world. With almost 4 million visitors in 2017, it is Vienna's most popular sight, so go early. Check current tickets and transport on the official Vienna tourism website.

For another side of Austria, our Grüner See guide visits the lake that turns a park into an underwater landscape in summer.

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