Palace of Justice (Justizpalast)

The Palace of Justice is not a museum but a working courthouse. It houses the Supreme Court, the Vienna Higher Regional Court, the Regional Court for Civil Matters, the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Senior Public Prosecutor's Office – more than 500 employees in all. Visitors are allowed, but there are no tickets, no tours and no museum operations. What there is: one of the most impressive halls in the city and a café on the top floor that hardly anyone knows about.

Is it worth a visit?

If you like historicist architecture: yes. The central hall is a three-story, glass-roofed arcaded hall, 31 meters long, 15 meters wide and 23 meters high. A broad grand staircase leads up to the second floor and ends at a marble statue of Justitia with a gilded sword and law book, created by Emanuel Pendl.

The appeal lies in the fact that this is a place of work. Lawyers wheel file carts up the staircase, and people wait in the corridors for their hearings. That is something different from a preserved state room – and it also means you should move around discreetly.

If, on the other hand, you expect a sight with a set route and signage, you will find little. There is no exhibition and there are no information panels. If you are interested in the period it was built, see the building in context: the Austrian Parliament, City Hall (Rathaus) and the University are a few hundred meters away and date from the same decades. The Ringstrasse era deliberately gave the institutions of the state their own buildings, each in a different historical style.

Allow half an hour for the hall and the same again for the café. If you combine both with the MuseumsQuartier or the Volksgarten, you have a good half day.

Tickets and prices

Admission is free. At the entrance there is an airport-style security check, with bag scanners and a metal detector. Bring a photo ID.

Opening hours and best time to visit

The building is open on weekdays, but not on weekends or public holidays. Core hours run from the morning into the early afternoon; exact times can change, so check beforehand if in doubt.

Midday is the best time for the hall: the sun is then high enough for light to fall through the glass roof onto the staircase. For the rooftop café the opposite applies – there you want a window table, and you are most likely to get one outside the lunch break.

Getting there

The nearest U-Bahn (subway) station is Volkstheater (U2 and U3), about five minutes' walk away via Museumsplatz. Alternatively, the trams along the Ring stop nearby, as do lines 46 and 49 at the Ring. Coming by car is not worth it – the whole 1st district is a short-term parking zone.

History in brief

The Palace of Justice was built between 1875 and 1881 to plans by Alexander Wielemans von Monteforte, in the Neo-Renaissance style. It is one of the buildings of the Ringstrasse era meant to give the institutions of the state a visible presence – alongside the Parliament, City Hall and the University.

On July 15, 1927, the building became the scene of one of the gravest events of the First Republic. After the acquittal in the so-called Schattendorf trial, a demonstration marched to the Palace of Justice, stormed the upper floors and set them on fire. The police fired into the crowd. 89 people died, 84 demonstrators and five police officers. The Palace of Justice fire is considered one of the milestones on the road to the civil war of 1934.

In 2007 the attic was converted. This created a central library that spans the hall as a "reading bridge" (Lesebrücke), and the public café directly above the main entrance.

Nearby

• Austrian Parliament – 200 meters away, also from the Ringstrasse era, with its own visitor program.
• Volksgarten – the nearest green space, with more than 3,000 rose bushes.
• Maria-Theresien-Platz – three minutes on foot, between the two large museums.
• Volkstheater – right at the U-Bahn station you arrive at anyway.

Tip

Go into the hall first and then up to the café, not the other way around. From the grand staircase you see the arcades at their full height; if you have been upstairs first, you hardly notice them on the way down. And in the café, sit on the outer side: the view goes over the rooftops of the city center, not into the courtyard.