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    4. Vienna – the world’s greenest city

    Vienna – the world’s greenest city

    You can’t get much greener than Vienna: Among more than 100 major cities, Vienna took first place in the ranking of “The World’s 10 Greenest Cities 2020”.

    Outstanding quality of life for connoisseurs

    “Vienna, Vienna, you alone / will always be the city of my dreams.” The famous Viennese song puts into poetic words what has been officially confirmed by a Canadian-American consulting agency: Vienna is a wonderful city with an exceptionally high quality of life – Vienna is the world’s greenest city! And this is the second superlative: in one international survey, Vienna was voted the world’s "most liveable city” for the tenth year running.

    Over 100 cities were evaluated, with parks, public green spaces, the utilisation of renewable energy, air quality, public transport, and markets offering regional products as the most important criteria for the ranking.

    On this page you can get to know Vienna’s colourful potpourri of nature.

    Vienna’s six most beautiful parks

    The magnificent flowerbeds, rose gardens, lawns, and tree-lined paths are the heart of Vienna’s parks, which the city’s inhabitants so love. The capital city boasts no fewer than 990 municipal parks! Clearing your head, meeting friends, taking a stroll, jogging, or simply sitting on a bench in the sun – these green islands in the middle of the hustle and bustle of urban life are the ideal place to relax and breathe in the city’s pure air.

    • The Porcelain Manufactory Augarten / Augarten Porzellanmanufaktur, Wien
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    • Botanical Garden at Universtity of Vienna
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    • Monument of Johann Strauss / Stadtpark Vienna
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    • Upper Belvedere in summer
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    • Schönbrunn Palm House
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    • View of Vienna ring road
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    “It greens so green”: sustainability in Vienna

    • Surrounded by green

      Lawns, parks, vineyards, woods, fields, and gardens: thanks to the Vienna Woods and the Danube wetlands, green spaces cover nearly half of Vienna’s total area. The district of Hietzing, by the way, is the greenest, with green spaces accounting for some 70% of the total area.

    • Soft mobility

      The city has 162 public transport lines that are used by more than 966 million passengers per year. The Viennese are particularly environmentally conscious when it comes to mobility: 73% take public transport to work, 44% walk, 13% ride their bike, and only 33% drive.

    • The trees

      The Municipal Department of Parks and Gardens has its hands full. After all, it oversees nearly a half million trees: 95,000 trees lining public streets and paths, 188,400 trees on private property, 1,900 on commercial property, and an estimated 200,000 forest trees in public green spaces such as Vienna’s Prater.

    • Farms in the big city

      Surprising but true: Vienna has some 800 farms within its city limits, where more cucumbers, for example, are harvested than in the rest of Austria’s provinces combined. The same is true of aubergines, parsley, tomatoes, and chilli peppers.

    Blooming city: The famous “Vienna feeling”

    Vienna is a place of beauty. Magnificent buildings from the Baroque and “Gründerzeit” as well as architectural gems from the city’s imperial age are lined up on the Ring Road like a string of elegant pearls. But this splendour is only truly brought to life through the many green oases, in which visitors to Vienna immediately fall in love.

    • City Hike in Vienna
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    • View of Vienna ring road
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    • park Burggarten in Vienna
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    • View of Vienna
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    Five reasons why Vienna is so liveable

    • 4. The city is super clean!

      The streets, parks, and public squares here are a pure delight – in the most literal sense of the word: rubbish collection and cleaning work run smoothly and efficiently.

    • 1. Green spaces are so close!

      From the city centre, one can be at one of Vienna’s recreational areas, such as the Danube Island, in only 15 minutes.

    • 5. Relax and keep calm!

      Perhaps the coffeehouses and wine taverns have always promoted this mentality: in Vienna, nothing is done in a hurry; for a major city, things are always fairly calm and “gemütlich”.

    • 2. Public transport runs like clockwork!

      The Viennese love their streetcars, their busses, and their underground. On weekends, the city’s “tube” even runs the whole night.

    • 3. The purest drinking water right from the tap!

      Vienna’s drinking water comes from the Lower Austrian and Styrian Alps right to the city via aqueducts.

    View of Vienna ring road
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    Vienna in the bike lane

    Biking in the city

    Cycling in Vienna is a wonderful experience, thanks to the 1,400 kilometres of bike paths, bike lanes, and cycling routes through low-traffic zones. “Citybikes” can be hired at 121 bike stations located all over town, allowing visitors to explore the city at a leisurely pace.

     

    Vienna’s “green lung”

    View of Vienna ring road
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    Donau-Auen National Park

    Climate regulator for the big city and Central Europe’s largest ecologically intact and natural wetland environment.

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    The loveliest picnic spots

    The rustle of the leaves, the chirping of the birds, and the deep blue of the sky – a day made to order for a picnic. It is only the question of where: in the city centre or on the water, out in the woods or up in the hills with a stupendous view? The good news is that the picnic season in Vienna is long enough that one can try all of them.

    • View of Vienna ring road
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      The Danube Island The Danube Island

      A recreational paradise and the ideal destination for all picnic enthusiasts who love the island life.

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      The green Prater The green Prater

      Green as far as the eye can see: still today, the pristine, undeveloped part of the Prater is characterised by the picturesque Danube wetlands.

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    • park Burggarten in Vienna
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      The Burggarten The Burggarten

      Situated right on the Ring, it is one of the city’s most pleasant green oases.

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    Vienna and the woods

    • City Hike in Vienna
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      Vienna Woods

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    • Hermes Villa in the Lainz Game Reserve
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      Lainzer Tiergarten

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    • View of Vienna
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      Kahlenberg

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    • Hofburg - Imperial Palace
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      Vienna

      Imperial Vienna

      A stroll around Vienna can be like a journey back in time to the days of the empire: it comes as no surprise that the historic city center is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site.
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    • The excellent service in the Vienna Kaffeehaus "Café Sperl"
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      Viennese Coffeehouse Culture

      The Viennese say they looted sacks of coffee beans after the Turks withdrew following a failed siege in 1683. But it was a spy on the payroll of the Royal Court who gave the city its real taste for coffee. Born in Istanbul, he founded Vienna’s first Kaffeehaus in 1685.
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    Vienna Tourist Board

    Albertinaplatz

    1010 Vienna

    Austria

    info@wien.info
    https://www.wien.info/en
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