Freyung

The Freyung is an irregular triangular square at the heart of Vienna's old town, named for the medieval right of asylum granted by the neighbouring Schottenstift – anyone who reached the monastery precinct was free from secular prosecution. The square is lined by aristocratic palaces of the Baroque and Neoclassical periods: Palais Harrach, Palais Kinsky by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, and Palais Ferstel with its glass-roofed arcade leading to the legendary Cafe Central, where Trotsky, Lenin and Stefan Zweig played chess. In the centre stands the 1846 Austria Fountain with allegorical figures of the Habsburg empire's four main rivers. Today weekly markets bring farmers, antiques and books to the square; in Advent the Altwiener Christkindlmarkt fills it. To see official Vienna beyond St Stephen's and the Hofburg, start here – this density of palaces, cafe culture and monastic quiet is unmatched in the city.