Naschmarkt

Market · Wienzeile (4th/6th)Vienna,Austria

Half a kilometre of Vienna market laid over the covered River Wien, produce and spice stalls at one end easing into restaurants at the other.

The Naschmarkt runs for about half a kilometre along the Wienzeile, on top of a river. The city end is the working market: fruit, vegetables, cheese, barrels of olives, spice stalls, and the vinegars and horseradish preparations Viennese cooking depends on. Walking west it shifts gradually into restaurants and meze bars, and by the far end it is more a place to eat than to shop. On Saturdays a flea market spreads beyond the western end. The River Wien was covered over at the end of the nineteenth century so that the surface above it could be used. The produce market moved onto the new ground in stages as the vaulting advanced, finishing in 1916. One side of the street is worth looking up at. Otto Wagner built two apartment blocks here in the late 1890s, one tiled and one gilded, and both went up as ordinary rented flats rather than showpieces.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Weekday morning is the working market — the produce end is busiest early, and by afternoon a large share of the trade has shifted to the restaurant end.
Taste before you commit — olive, cheese and spice sellers expect to hand you something, and the difference between stalls at the same price is considerable.
The two halves are two different trades — the produce stands sell by weight for home kitchens, while the restaurants that filled the western half after 2000 charge restaurant prices.
Sunday it does not open at all — the market keeps shop hours and Vienna's Sunday closing applies, so a Sunday visit is an empty strip.

Things to do

1
Walk it westwards from the Getreidemarkt end
Start at the Getreidemarkt end among the greengrocers, cheese counters and olive barrels, then keep walking west. Schleifmuehlgasse crosses about halfway, and everything beyond it stands on ground that was vaulted over the river only in 1915. The market's two halves are of different ages, and you cross the join without any sign telling you so.
2
Cross to the far pavement for Wagner's rose-tiled block
From inside the market you cannot see either block properly, because the stalls and awnings cut off everything above the first floor. Cross the Linke Wienzeile, stand on the far pavement and turn round. Numbers 38 and 40 stand side by side, and both fronts come into view from pavement to roofline at once.
3
Come on a Saturday for the flea market
On Saturday mornings the ground past the western end of the market fills with about four hundred sellers at trestle tables: vinyl, cutlery, old cameras, postcards, real Biedermeier and a great deal that is not. Private sellers and dealers stand side by side, prices are asked rather than marked, and the whole thing starts packing up around two.