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Posts tagged ‘Stefaniewarte’

25T73 Stefaniewarte lookout tower on Vienna Kahlenberg

E72, V20.

I’ve been up to Kahlenberg hill a couple of times in past years, but coming up during weekdays meant I lost out on the lookout tower. A warm sunny Saturday is an opportunity to fix my error.

In 1887, the Kahlenberg railway company completed an extension of its cogwheel railway to the top of Kahlenberg (484 m/1588 ft). At the same time, the company constructed next to the railway terminus station a 22-metre high brick lookout-tower, named after the Crown Princess Stephanie of Belgium. The cogwheel railway is long gone, and there had been years when the tower was neglected or forgotten. Reopened to the public in 1992, the lookout tower is now managed and operated by Naturfreunde Döbling. The top of the Stefaniewarte lookout tower is effectively about 500 metres above sea level, providing 360° views of the city and surrounding area.

Open only on summer weekends in good weather, the tower is open until 6pm with 2€ admission. Public transport: S45- or U4-train to Heiligenstadt station, then bus 38A to Kahlenberg.

“Kronprinzessin Stefanie-Warte 1887”
The climb up the 120 or so steps was comfortable: wide deep steps, reasonable stairwell-clearing or -height.
To the northwest is the 165-metre tall Kahlenberg Transmitter tower which is not open to the public. The transmission tower is anchored by 3 pairs of cables onto 3 piers.
North. This is where the crescent of the Alps’ mountain range tapers to an end.
Southeast.
South. In the background almost 70 km in distance is the 2078-metre high Schneeberg.
Visible in this 4x digital zoom view to the southeast: DonauCity (DC) Tower 1, Danube river, Millennium Tower, Red Vienna’s Karl-Marx-Hof, the Prater and its Ferris wheel.
Visible in this 4x digital zoom view to the south: Müllverbrennungsanlage Spittelau, Ringturm, Votivkirche, Stephansdom, Peterskirche, Karlskirche, Oberes Belvedere, Hauptbahnhof complex, Arsenal communication tower, AKH general hospital.

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 19 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.