In 2023, Vienna will celebrate "150 Years of the Vienna World's Fair".

Vienna reinvented itself in the years around 1873, which is why Vienna will celebrate its past, present, and future in 2023 in the spirit of great urban visions.

Why is the time around 1873 still so incredibly important for Vienna today? It was in those years that Vienna became a global city. And at the time, stakes were driven in that are still essential to Vienna's high quality of life. Everything was about new beginnings and exactly 150 years later, Vienna is under similar portents. What happens in Vienna today will still be hugely relevant 150 years from now. All of which will be celebrated in grand style in 2023. And there's are plenty of reasons to come to Vienna to be inspired by the spirit of the 1873 World's Fair and by contemporary Vienna.

Numerous highlights await your customers: in spring 2023, a new exhibition venue of the special kind, which is reminiscent of the legendary rotunda, opens with "Panorama Vienna". The Viennese museum are in the spirit of the World´s Fair as well: the Museum of Technology, the Weltmuseum and the MAK (Museum of Applied Arts) will have special exhibitions. A special new Viennese music venue opens in anniversary year 2023 with the "House of Strauss" in the historic Casino Zögernitz. The venue will offer a museum dedicated to the Strauss dynasty, as well as concerts, events, and a brasserie. Attention will also be focused on Vienna's hotel sector and food scene in 2023. The legendary Hotel Imperial as well as Café Landtmann, one of the best known of Vienna's Ringstrasse cafés, are also celebrating their 150th birthday.

More information and inspiration can be found here: Visions and New Beginnings; Additional events for 2023 can be found here: Top-Events in 2023. Texts and themes can be downloaded as a toolkit here, pictures are available here.

Highlights of 2023

Numerous Viennese institutions have taken the landmark anniversary as a golden opportunity to explore the topic of the World's Fair. An early highlight will set the ball rolling at the Prater in spring 2023, when Panorama Vienna, a special new exhibition venue modeled on the original Rotunda building, opens. Standing 34 meters tall, inside it will display images that can only be fully appreciated as a panorama.

The 150th anniversary is also providing food for thought at the capital's galleries and museums: temporary exhibition Women at Work. 150 Years of the Women’s Pavilion at the Vienna World’s Fair will set the tone at the Vienna Museum of Technology. The Weltmuseum Wien, which has always had a room dedicated to the 1873 World's Fair, will also be running a special program to mark the anniversary. Meanwhile, at the MAK - Museum of Applied Arts a pair of exhibitions refer to 1873. The first explores the interest in Orientalism which was sparked by the Vienna World's Fair, while the other celebrates the work of one of Vienna’s most venerated traditional manufacturers J. & L. Lobmeyr. A prominent fixture at the 1873 World's Fair, the renowned crystal glass maker also had the privilege of providing various exhibition pieces for the Imperial Pavilion. Coincidentally, Lobmeyr is celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2023. In recognition of yet another jubilee, the city is marking 150 years of Vienna’s water supply with numerous events.

In addition, a special new Viennese music venue is opening in the historic Casino Zögernitz building – House of Strauss. Besides a museum dedicated to the Strauss dynasty, it will also be a venue for concerts and events. A brasserie will cater to every taste in the Strauss universe.

MAK: Orientalism and glittering worlds of luxury ­– Sparkling and glittering are the order of the day from June 7, 2023, at the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. J. & L. Lobmeyr, the Viennese traditional manufactory for elegant crystal glass and special chandeliers, was part of the Vienna World's Fair in 1873 and the company simultaneously celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2023. An exhibition, in which shimmering worlds of luxury await in the form of fantastic Viennese handicrafts.

Also starting at the MAK on June 21, 2023, is another special exhibition on the 1873 Vienna World's Fair. It focuses on the trend towards the Orientalism of the 19th century, which inspired the World's Fair. It promises exotic worlds and a design vocabulary that was unknown at the time and heavily inspired the western world.

Weltmuseum Wien: Austro-Japanese friendship ­– The Weltmuseum Wien (World Museum Vienna) is also in the spirit of the World’s Fair: here you will find two halls featuring a special focus on the World’s Fair. They are dedicated to the opening of Japan and the “Orient” to Europe – because the Vienna World's Fair was a premier at which Japan, along with Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, the Ottoman Empire and Persia presented themselves in depth to the world for the very first time.

Wien Museum: Major re-opening ­– A major re-opening is on the program in December 2023: The Wien Museum is opening its doors again after several years of remodeling and expansion, and will become an important place of encounter on Karlsplatz. The present-day collection of the Wien Museum was initiated in advance of the Vienna World's Fair.

Prater: Revival of the rotunda tradition ­– The new Prater attraction Panorama Vienna provides a big visual spectacle and a whole bunch of goosebumps from spring 2023. A completely new concept for the Prater, which will show gigantic art formats in the form of giant, analog, 360-degree panoramas. Currently being constructed for this is a circular structure with a height of 32 meters and a circumference of about 100 meters, on whose interior the outsize panoramic artworks will be seen. Panorama Vienna is all about the tradition of rotundas in the Prater: Rotundas were round buildings, inside which spectacles for the masses were offered. The largest of all rotundas was the World's Fair rotunda of 1873 – at the time the largest domed structure in the world, which went up in flames in 1937. 2023 therefore also marks the revival of this Prater tradition.

Dining and crystal clear water ­– There will also be much to celebrate for Viennese gastronomy in 2023: Café Landtmann, one of Vienna's best-known coffee houses, opened in 1873 and continues to welcome visitors from around the world. For the Imperial and Royal Court Confectioner Gerstner, 1873 was also a big year: The company provided the catering in the Emperor's Pavilion at the Vienna World's Fair and receive the coveted title of Imperial and Royal Court Purveyor.

Inseparably linked with Viennese hospitality is the fantastic Viennese high spring water, which has flowed down from the Alps to Vienna since 1873 and will be celebrated in grand style in 2023: Firstly, on June 16, when the Vienna Water Festival is held at the historic Favoriten water tower. Secondly, on October 24, 2023, the opening day of the high spring pipeline, when the new anniversary fountain will be unveiled. The fountain is being designed by Gelatin, an internationally renowned group of Austrian artists. In a special place: The anniversary fountain will be installed in the Sonnwendviertel, one of the most important and spectacular urban development projects in Vienna of the 3rd millennium.

Luxury shopping à la 1873 ­– In 2023, Vienna will also be about exquisite shopping in the form of famous Viennese handicrafts. Not only is the elegant store of J. & L. Lobmeyr on Kärntner Strasse directly connected to the World's Fair and waiting to be discovered. The jewelers A. E. Köchert Juweliere, who were also part of the World's Fair and relocated to the present location on Neuer Markt in 1873, continue to offer worlds of luxury like in those days. Just like the bespoke shoemaker Scheer and the silversmiths Jarosinski & Vaugoin, as well as Bösendorfer pianos, all of which exhibited at the World's Fair and still offer their special products in Vienna today.

Meeting destination Vienna ­– And Meeting Destination Vienna is also in the spirit of the World's Fair and its impact on the world: Such as in the form of the World Soybean Research Conference, which will be held at the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) from June 18, 2023. Because the Vienna World's Fair spurred on the spread of the soybean around the world. At the time, the special plant was brought to Vienna by the Japanese World's Fair delegation. For this reason, there is a focus on the topic of the soybean at the Austrian Folklore Museum in 2023.

More events and anniversaries in 2023

The Belvedere - 300 Years a Place of Art  ­– Celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of the construction of the Upper Belvedere will start in December 2022. Featuring a packed program of events and exhibitions, the special milestone will play out under the specially chosen theme of Golden Spring.

The Print: Dürer to Picasso at the Albertina ­– The 20th anniversary of the ALBERTINA Museum’s reopening is to be marked by a grandiose exhibition featuring printed graphics from the past six centuries.

Vienna Opera Ball ­– The 65th Vienna Opera Ball will fill the Vienna State Opera´s dancefloor, where revelers dance to the beat of the waltz.

Danube Island Festival ­– This year Europe’s largest free open-air festival is celebrating a special anniversary: the signal’s set for a truly spectacular party at the 40th Danube Island Festival this year.