Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz

Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz lies directly behind Vienna City Hall, on the boundary between the Innere Stadt and Josefstadt districts. It was named in 1907 after Friedrich von Schmidt, a pupil of the Cologne Cathedral school of builders who designed Vienna's city hall from 1872 to 1883 in Flemish-influenced neo-Gothic. The square holds a monument to Schmidt and offers a view of the rear facade of the Rathaus, less ceremonial but more precise in its neo-Gothic detail. For anyone walking the Ringstrasse, this is a quieter side of the city-hall complex, easily combined with a stroll into the cafe quarter of Josefstadt.