Strudlhofstiege, Vienna

Strudlhofstiege is an outdoor staircase whose architecture and literary history are equally remarkable. It links the higher and lower sections of Strudlhofgasse, and its name comes from Peter Strudel, the painter who ran an art school here before the present structure existed. The staircase was designed by Theodor Johann Jaeger of Vienna’s municipal planning office and opened on 29 November 1910.

Built from Mannersdorf limestone, it is regarded as a major work of Jugendstil architecture. Begin your view at the lower section, where curved flights mirror each other around a pair of fountains. A carved face sends water into the smaller basin; at the larger basin, water emerges from a fish’s mouth set within a pebble-lined niche.

Above them, stairways and ramps keep changing the way the structure appears as you pass through it. Stone and metal railings, along with iron candelabra, give the route a carefully staged character. Its garden-like atmosphere comes from planted spaces woven between the stairs and ramps. The staircase became famous far beyond Vienna after Heimito von Doderer used it as the setting and title of his 1951 novel, Die Strudlhofstiege oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre.