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TravelAustria

When night falls in Vienna

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December 12, 2025

Vienna is beautiful. Surrounded by elegant imperial facades, people enjoy culture and coffee. Or, they might clatter past St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Sisi Museum in horse-drawn carriages. But when night falls, the city shows itself in a whole new light.

After the tourists have been swallowed up by the revolving doors of the Sacher Hotel, the Vienna State Opera and the Burgtheater, the night shift takes over. The now-quiet streets make Vienna's magnificent buildings seem to shine even brighter. We begin our tour at Mitra Milašević's "Café 3M." For decades, Serbs, Albanians, and Croats have been dancing here together through the night. Mitra's pub is a cult favorite. As students and neighbors join in, often around midnight, the "3M" seems to burst at the seams. Meanwhile, Andreas Nevrivy has a rendezvous with death. He and his team are on the night shift at a local mortuary. We ask them, is the saying "death is Viennese" really true? Their answer is tied to the Vienna Central Cemetery. One of the largest in Europe, tonight it also serves as a place of work, for Andreas and his team. This is also a night that musician Bibiza ushers into day, along with his friends. The enfant terrible of Vienna's subculture gives us a tour. It is the opposite of Viennese chic — though we can find that too, in the posh Eden Bar or the legendary Hotel Orient. And, as always in Vienna, every long night ends at the sausage stand — with an order of Käsekrainer sausage and pickled gherkin. "LEO" is the oldest family-owned sausage stand, and Leszek is his boss's best employee. He shares his tips for how to stay up, until the sun rises again over Vienna.

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