Brief information:
- Where is the Lainzer Tiergarten located? In the west of Vienna, parts also belong to Lower Austria
- What animals can you see there? There are 800 to 1000 wild boar, 80 to 100 red deer, 200 to 250 fallow deer, countless roe deer and around 700 mouflons.
- Where is the entrance? There are 6 gates: Lainzer Tor, St. Veiter Tor, Gütenbach GatePulverstampftor, Laaber Tor and Nikolai Gate
- Does it cost admission? No
- When is it open? All year round, you can find the exact times HERE.
The Lainzer Tor
This is the most important access point to the Lainzer Tiergarten, the Main gate. Directly at the entrance is the Visitor centrewhere you can obtain the most important information about the nature reserve. Hiking maps are also available here. In the visitor centre, you can find your way around with the help of an interactive terrain model or book a guided tour. The following options are available: Wild herb walk, bat walk, bird song walk, Johannser Kogel. Guided tours of the Lainzer Tiergarten are also available for school classes.
Just a few meters after the entrance you will find a huge playground with swings, slides, covered sandpit and much more. A real paradise for children!
Behind it is the beautiful Hohenau pond, where you can observe some rare ducks. If you look closely, you can also spot huge carp in the water.
About 20 minutes walk from the entrance you will find the HermesvillaIf you want, you can visit the Forest nature trail walk. It first goes past the fallow deer and mouflon enclosure (opposite the playground). The path is lined with various information boards and the typical tree species of the Vienna Woods are explained using the corresponding trees. The trees themselves "report" on their age, their occurrence and their characteristics: Leaves, seedlings and fruits of the tree species are presented with the help of detailed drawings.
The Hermesvilla
The “Castle of Dreams”, as Empress Elisabeth once called her villa She received the "Gift" from her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph, as a gift. He hoped that this "gift" would enable him to keep his travel-loving wife in Vienna more often.
Today, various exhibitions are held in the Hermesvilla. On the first floor, you can see how the imperial couple once lived privately. The oversized state bed is from the time of Maria Theresa. The walls are decorated with impressive murals. Sissi's personal gym can also still be visited. Hermesvilla There are also special exhibitions.
In the Café-Restaurant Hermesvilla you can enjoy a wonderful meal. On sunny days, a reservation for one of the tables outside is recommended! +43 676 3926140
The Lainzer Tiergarten in general
The Lainzer Tiergarten is not an animal park or zoo like Schönbrunn or the Herberstein Animal World imagine. There are no exotic animals here. Instead, wild boar, red deer, fallow deer, roe deer and mouflon live in the wild. Only if you are lucky will you see a wild boar - on other days you might only see ducks.
Nevertheless, the Lainzer Tiergarten is a very popular destination for the Viennese and Lower Austrians, as it is a very relaxing place to walk and hike in this unspoilt part of the Vienna Woods. Over 500,000 visitors come here every year. The area covers a total area of 2,450 hectares - 1,945 hectares of which is forest. The entire area is surrounded by a 22 kilometre long wall. This wall still has a funny history today:
From 1782 to 1787, Emperor Joseph II commissioned the master bricklayer Philipp Schlucker to build the wall. The price offered by Mr Schlucker was so low at the time that the Viennese people feared that the master bricklayer would become impoverished; although this fear did not materialise, the expression "poor bastard" is still a familiar term today.
You can only enter through 6 gates. Cycling is prohibited in the nature reserve (except for children under the age of 6). Dogs are also not allowed in the Lainzer Tiergarten.
Plants and animals
Since 2008, the Lainzer Tiergarten has also been a European protected area. The zoo has a high level of biodiversity and has numerous endangered plant and animal species. A special feature of the zoo is its impressive beech and oak forests. Some of these have therefore been preserved for over 400 years.
The Lainzer Tiergarten is home to around 800 to 1000 wild boar, 80 to 100 red deer, 200 to 250 fallow deer, countless roe deer and around 700 mouflons.
The birdlife at Lainzer Tiergarten is particularly diverse, with over 94 different species to be found here. Numerous species of birds of prey live in the zoo, as well as rare birds such as the white-backed woodpecker, the lesser spotted and collared flycatcher, the stock dove, the tawny owl and the black woodpecker.
15 species of reptiles and amphibians live here, such as the yellow-bellied toad, fire salamander, alpine newt, alpine crested newt and European tree frog. There are also 39 different species of grasshopper and countless butterflies in the Lainzer Tiergarten. If you're lucky, you might spot one of the 13 bat species.
Leisure activities
As already mentioned, the zoo is particularly popular with hikers, runners, walkers and strollers. For families, there are 6 children's playgrounds, mostly located near the gates. Visitors will find various viewing points, picnic areas, running trails, an observation tower, the Hermesvilla, the Nikolai Chapel and places to stop for refreshments such as the Rohrhaus (+431 8041323), Hirschgstemm (+43 664 1572585) or the Café-Restaurant Hermesvilla (+43 676 3926140).
For visitors, there is the forest nature trail at the Lainzer Tor and the nature trail at the Nikolaitor.
Forest playgrounds
- Lainzer Tor: This playground is 200 meters from the Lainzer Tor, on the left side of the Kastanienallee, which leads to the Hermesvilla.
- Hermesvilla: This is a small playground located in the Tiergarten on the path leading from Lainzer Tor towards Hermesvilla, just before the villa on the left.
- Gütenbachtal: About 100 metres from the Gütenbach Gate in the zoo, this forest playground can be found on the left-hand side.
- Hirschgstemm: This playground is located next to the corresponding inn in the Lainzer Tiergarten.
- Rohrhaus: This playground is located at the Rohrhaus inn.
- Nikolaiwiese: About 100 metres from the Nikolai Gate removed from the Lainzer Tiergarten
Path lengths in the Lainzer Tiergarten