The open tropical house
Birds and monkeys moving freely around visitors with no glass — the part children remember over the fish.
Thomas Ledl — CC BY 4.0 · Lajos Gál — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lajos Gál — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lajos Gál — CC BY-SA 3.0
For families with children, clearly yes — one of Vienna's best options for them. For adults alone, the terrace-only ticket is the smarter buy unless you specifically love aquariums.
Weekday mornings, or after six in the evening. Weekends and school holidays are very busy because it is primarily a local family destination.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
Europe's strangest setting for an aquarium: a colossal concrete tower built by the Nazis in 1942 as an anti-aircraft gun platform, with walls metres thick that proved impossible to demolish. It stood in the middle of a residential district for decades as an oppressive reminder, until it was gradually converted into an aquarium from 1957. Today eleven floors of tanks climb up through it: sharks, sea turtles, coral reefs, and an open tropical section where birds and monkeys move freely above visitors' heads rather than behind glass. Children spend two hours here without getting bored. At the top are a café and a roof terrace with a 360-degree view over Vienna. You can buy a cheap separate ticket for the café and terrace without entering the aquarium — one of the city's cheapest viewpoints and among its least known.
Birds and monkeys moving freely around visitors with no glass — the part children remember over the fish.
A full view over Vienna from a tower never built to look at anything beautiful.
A concrete war tower with walls metres thick — a heavy piece of Vienna's history now put to an entirely different use.
Fritz-Grünbaum-Platz, Vienna