St. Marx Cemetery Park with Mozart's grave

• Location: 1030 Vienna, Friedhof St. Marx
  Public transport information
• Size: approximately 60,000 square metres
• Opening hours:
  • April 1 to September 30: 6.30 am to 8 pm
  • October 1 to March 31: 6.30 am to 6.30 pm
  • Opening hours can vary up to plus-minus half an hour.
• Admission free
• Contact: +43 1 4000-8042

Description of the Park

This public green area covers about six hectares and lies in a remote area of the city in a curve of the south-east ring motorway. Various mysteries surround the former cemetery, making it ideal for a reflective walk.

The cemetery was closed in 1874, at which time almost all the existing gravestones were from the Biedermeier period. Mozart is said to have been buried here in a mass grave, but the exact site of his burial can no longer be identified. Some of the remains have since been moved to the Central Cemetery, such as those of architect Josef Kornhäusel (1782 to 1860), world traveller Ida Pfeiffer (1797 to 1858) and the brilliant composer Josef Strauss (1827 to 1870). Some were moved to other cemeteries in Vienna, such as the floral artist Franz Xaver Gruber (1801 to 1862), a professor at the Academy who painted orchids for Emperor Franz and camellias for Prince Metternich.

The park is laid out on an axial system. Thick hedges of lilac alternate with monuments along the lengthwise axes. It is particularly worthwhile paying a visit to the cemetery in spring when the lilacs are in bloom. The thick vegetation and the many gravestones reveal the structure of the park. The arrangement of trees includes beautiful, large old trees which provide plenty of shade in the lower part of the park and form a backdrop of green around the perimeter. A maintenance and development programme has been drawn up for the cemetery, and some clearing work is currently underway in the park area to allow the monuments to be catalogued. An avenue runs alongside the main path, the sides of which are overarched by vegetation. A path around the boundary of the park complements this simple and effective system of paths.

Mozart's grave

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in 1791 and was buried in a pauper's grave in the St. Marx Communal Cemetery. For many years the location of Mozart's remains was unknown until 1855 when it is believed the grave was discovered. In 1859 Hanns Gasser built a monument there. This was later transferred to the group of honorary graves for musicians at Vienna's Central Cemetery. The empty space was adorned with a stone slab with Mozart's name and the years of his birth and death.

Later a "Mourning Genius", a new stone tablet and a column were added. The sculptor Florian Josephu-Drouot is responsible for the present appearance of Mozart’s grave as he restored it in 1950. The graves of Mozart’s family are spread over the whole of Europe. His father and widow can be found in Salzburg, his mother in Paris, his son Wolfgang in Karlsbad, and son Karl Thomas in Milan.