Graben

The Graben in Vienna's first district occupies the filled-in moat of a 12th-century medieval fortification, and today forms one arm of the so-called Goldenes U — the city's most concentrated luxury retail corridor, linking Kärntner Strasse and Kohlmarkt. At its center stands the Pestsäule (Plague Column), a baroque votive monument commissioned by Emperor Leopold I after the Great Plague of 1679, which killed roughly 75,000 Viennese. The surrounding facades layer several eras — Gründerzeit palais, Art Nouveau ornament, and imperial-era commercial buildings — all within a compact pedestrian zone. Visitors today walk between jewelers, old Viennese coffeehouses, and international flagship stores; at Christmas the street is illuminated in a way that heightens the contrast between the baroque monument and contemporary retail, a peculiarly Viennese juxtaposition found nowhere else in the city.

Pedestrian zone from Stephansplatz to Kohlmarkt, the 1693 plague column, Demel and Manz — Vienna's elegant middle.