Heiligenkreuzerhof and Schonlaterngasse

Historic · Innere Stadt (1st)Vienna,Austria

A walled monastic courtyard of cobbles and trees a hundred metres from Vienna's cathedral, still owned by the Cistercians and still lived in.

The Heiligenkreuzerhof is a walled courtyard of cobbles and trees a hundred metres from the cathedral, and the noise stops as you come through the archway. Flats, offices and a chapel stand around it, people still live here, and it is quiet at any hour. The courtyard and its Bernardi Chapel have worn this calm baroque face since the 1660s. The Cistercians of Heiligenkreuz Abbey have owned the ground since before 1242, and own it still. The lane that brings you in, Schönlaterngasse, is the opposite of the courtyard: every second house has a story attached. Number 6 gave the street its name, though the beautiful lantern itself is in a museum and what hangs outside is a copy made in 1971. Number 7 carries a basilisk and a legend dated to 1212. Number 9 was a forge and has been a literature house since the 1970s, with the old fire and bellows still in the basement.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Keep your voice down and do not photograph the windows — These are lived-in flats around a working monastic estate, not a museum courtyard, and the residents are close enough to hear a normal conversation.
Early morning gives you the courtyard alone — Later in the day it is used for weddings, markets and university events, and the gate can be closed while one of them is running.
Ask whether the chapel is open before you plan around it — The Bernardi Chapel unlocks for services and events rather than for visitors, and its Altomonte altarpiece is the best thing in the courtyard.

Things to do

1
Cross the archway and listen to the sound drop
Stand in Schonlaterngasse just outside the arch, note what you can hear, then walk twenty paces into the courtyard and stop. Traffic, voices and the cathedral crowd fall away almost completely. The courtyard was built to turn its back on the city, and your ears register that before your eyes do.
2
Read the lane house by house
Walk the whole of Schonlaterngasse slowly and look only at the ground and first floors. You will pass the lantern, the basilisk with its inscription and the old forge within about a hundred metres. Each has its explanation on the wall, and reading them in order takes ten minutes.
3
Sit in the courtyard at the end of the day
Take the bench under the trees in the late afternoon and stay long enough for someone to come home. Residents cross with shopping, a door opens on a staircase, a light goes on. It is the clearest demonstration in the old city that a medieval address can still simply be where people live.