Comparison of cities

Vienna’s architecture beats Venice and Florence

Vienna has once again come top in an international comparison of cities - this time it's about the beauty of its buildings.

The Viennese have almost become accustomed to Vienna being recognized in city comparisons as a metropolis worth living in. Now it has also been recognized as an architectural gem. In a pan-European comparison by the travel portal loveholidays, Vienna was ranked eighth in terms of the beauty of its buildings, making it even more worth seeing than Venice and Florence.

Rome, Paris, Barcelona, London, Madrid, Berlin and Prague are ahead of Vienna. And Vienna could perhaps be even higher up the list, as a whole range of criteria were assessed: With 135 architecturally interesting buildings, Vienna clearly beats even Paris (112 buildings). The total of three UNESCO World Heritage sites within the city limits also carry weight.

Neglected tourism treasure?
Apart from Rome, which can score points with its historical heritage of 247 architecturally valuable buildings, all other top-ranked cities are ahead of Vienna when it comes to exciting modern architecture. Paris has 27 of the coveted EUmie nominations, which are awarded to the best new buildings in Europe, while Berlin has twelve and Vienna just five.

Interest in architecture
Moreover, Vienna itself does not seem to know what it has in its architecture: While Barcelona, for example, offers 133 guided tours with an architectural focus, Vienna only has 27. The interest from guests would probably be there: The Google search query "Europe architecture" is now entered 86 percent more often around the world than it was a year ago.