Pötzleinsdorf Palace Park and the Vienna Woods — right on the doorstep of Das Winzer.
There are places in Vienna that people know without ever truly knowing them. Pötzleinsdorf Palace Park is one of those places. Step through its old Lion Gate just once, and you understand immediately: this is where the city ends, and something else begins.
From Das Winzer, it is less than a two-minute walk — and yet the transition feels like travelling through time. Covering 354,000 square metres, this English landscape garden was laid out in the 18th century. Today it is protected as a historic monument and ranks among Austria’s most significant landmarks of garden design. No noise. No crowds. Just trees, paths, sky.
“We believe true restoration requires something larger than ourselves. Forest. Silence. Space. Das Winzer is located exactly where Vienna ends and that space begins.”
The Park — A Natural Laboratory on the Doorstep, Woven with History
Giant sequoias, silver willows, old oaks and plane trees: the park’s tree population is an experience in itself. Some of these trees were already standing when banker Johann Heinrich Geymüller expanded the park in the late 18th century into a summer retreat for Vienna’s upper classes. Two ponds invite visitors to linger — ducks and turtles have long since claimed them as their territory. And if you are lucky, you may even spot a deer in the wooded section.
Set amid the greenery along the main path towards the palace, four stone figures from Vienna’s destroyed Ringtheater keep watch over passing walkers: the so-called Singing Quartet — soprano, alto, tenor and bass — quietly retired here since the fire of 1881.
The palace itself — now home to a Rudolf Steiner school — completes the scene.
Movement with a View
For those who prefer to keep moving, the park offers sports facilities, football pitches and expansive lawns for yoga, stretching or an impromptu picnic beneath the treetops. Jogging routes through the woods, uphill and downhill, follow the natural rhythm of the northern slope of Schafberg.
And for those who continue on, the Vienna Woods begin to unfold. The park is the starting point for walks and hikes that lead deep into the greenery west of Vienna — for hours on end, without asphalt underfoot. In winter, when the snow falls, the hill in the park turns into a sledging slope that makes even adults feel like children again.
The Perfect Finish
After a walk, after a round through the woods: Steirerstöckl, on the park’s northern edge, welcomes guests with Styrian tavern cuisine at star level. Or perhaps a glass of wine — maybe from our own cellar at Das Winzer, where the evening can come to a peaceful close.
We did not settle at Pötzleinsdorfer Straße 93 by chance. We chose this place because we believe that good living requires more than four walls. It needs air, greenery, and the knowledge that silence is never far away.
In this case, it is exactly two minutes away.
