The Naschmarkt
Why is it significant?
Step between the two rows of green-roofed stalls and let the market close around you: barrels of pickles, pyramids of spices, olives in every colour, dried fruit, cheese wheels, fish on ice and the cries of traders inviting you to taste.
Key Facts
| Place | The Naschmarkt |
|---|---|
| Address | Naschmarkt, Linke Wienzeile, 1060 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.19820, 16.36260 |
| Part of Walk | Melange, Torte and Schnitzel: Vienna's Coffee Houses and the Naschmarkt |
| Generated | Generated |
Step between the two rows of green-roofed stalls and let the market close around you: barrels of pickles, pyramids of spices, olives in every colour, dried fruit, cheese wheels, fish on ice and the cries of traders inviting you to taste. This is the Naschmarkt, and it runs for well over half a kilometre.
A market has stood in this area since the eighteenth century. Farmers brought milk here in wooden vessels made of ash wood, Asch in old German, and one theory says the place was first called the Aschenmarkt. Over time the name shifted to Naschmarkt, and the Viennese happily accepted it, because naschen means to nibble, to snack on something sweet. Whether linguists agree or not, it is the perfect name.
Now here is the surprise beneath your feet. The river Wien flows under this market. Around 1900, as part of Otto Wagner's plans for the city railway and the river regulation, the Wien was channelled and covered with a vault. The market moved onto that new ground, and the long rows of stalls were built along it in the early twentieth century. You are standing, quite literally, on a roof over a river.
For centuries Vienna has absorbed people from the whole empire and far beyond, and the Naschmarkt shows it. Bohemian, Hungarian and Balkan flavours, then Turkish, Greek, Middle Eastern and Asian ones, all sit side by side. On Saturdays a flea market spreads out at the far end, near the Kettenbrückengasse station, with old porcelain, records and coffee grinders.
Try something before you go, a piece of cheese, a dried apricot, a spoonful of horseradish if you are brave. Then look up across the Linke Wienzeile to your right. Two apartment houses on the far side are covered in flowers and gold, and they are the last stop of this walk.