{"id":6789,"date":"2018-11-07T05:12:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T04:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=6789"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T15:18:51","slug":"rathaus-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/christmasmarkets\/rathaus-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rathaus Christmas tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/christmastreesmall.jpg\" alt=\"Lights on a Christmas tree\" class=\"wp-image-65118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/christmastreesmall.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/christmastreesmall-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In an ever-changing world, one thing stays constant: <del>taxes<\/del> the huge Christmas tree in front of the Rathaus (city hall), an annual gift to Vienna from one of the other provinces in Austria or the Italian province of S\u00fcdtirol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Giant Christmas tree sits at the heart of the Christkindlmarkt<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Supplied by a different&nbsp;province each year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The 2025 tree came from Tyrol<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2000 LED lights and 1000 baubles as decoration<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Usually lit from mid-November<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Exact 2026 dates TBA (was Nov 15 in 2025)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Book a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiqets.com\/en\/concerts-opera-vienna-tickets-l206741\/?partner=visitingvienna&amp;tq_campaign=LG_Xmas\" rel=\"sponsored\">classical concert experience<\/a>* for your Vienna trip<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/christmas-in-vienna\/\">Christmas in Vienna<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A tree of friendship<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/rathauschristmastree2024.jpg\" alt=\"Two people in front of a large decorated Christmas tree\" class=\"wp-image-79163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/rathauschristmastree2024.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/rathauschristmastree2024-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Festive illumination of the Christmas tree back in 2024 with Vienna&#8217;s Mayor, Michael Ludwig, and Lower Austria&#8217;s Governor, Johanna Mikl-Leitner; press photo \u00a9 Stadt Wien \/ Christian Jobst)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the capital and the biggest city by far, Vienna can have a tense relationship with the eight other provinces that form the rest of Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it&#8217;s all sweetness and light at Christmas: every year, a different province sends Vienna a tree for the festive season in a tradition that dates back to 1959. The Italian province of S\u00fcdtirol also joins the rotation, since it has close connections to Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not just any tree turns up, of course, but a giant of a specimen&#8230;a tree to tower over the square in front of the city&#8217;s Rathaus and form the centrepiece of the most popular Christmas market in the country: the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/christmasmarkets\/rathausplatz\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"222\">Christkindlmarkt<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lighting of the tree marks the unofficial start of the Viennese advent season, with many Christmas markets beginning about then too. The tree lights usually switch on around the same time the surrounding market opens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><em>Ad:<\/em><br><\/div><div data-tiqets-widget=\"discovery\" data-cards-layout=\"horizontal\" data-slug-ids=\"exp206741,exp205287\" data-partner=\"visitingvienna\" data-tq-campaign=\"DA_Christmas\"><\/div><script defer src=\"https:\/\/widgets.tiqets.com\/loader.js\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2025 tree went up on October 28th this year. The 28m-tall, 50-year-old spruce hailed from Hopfgarten im Brixental (a municipality in the province of Tyrol) and grew up in the lovely landscape of the Kitzb\u00fcheler Alps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Staff from the city gardens then decorated the tree with around 2000 LED lights and some 1000 Christmas baubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The official switching on of the lights took place on November 15th (one day after the market opened) in the presence of the governors of Vienna and Tyrol, Michael Ludwig and Anton Mattle.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rathauschristmastree2025.jpg\" alt=\"A large spruce being erected by a crane\" class=\"wp-image-86732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rathauschristmastree2025.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rathauschristmastree2025-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Installation of the tree in 2025 in the early hours of October 28th; press photo \u00a9 stadt wien marketing\/Lisa Leutner)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Previous years<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An area of Lower Austria noted for its idyllic and mystical landscape sent across the 2024 tree: a 34m 80-year-old spruce from Rastenfeld in the Waldviertel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The 2023 tree arrived from S\u00fcdtirol. The 28m spruce in question came from the Fanes-Sennes-Prags nature park in the Dolomites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The province of Styria provided the 2022 tree, which came from Admont in Upper Styria<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The 2021 tree grew in the easternmost part of Austria: Burgenland. Foresters harvested the spruce from woodland belonging to the Esterh\u00e1zy family in the Wiesen area of the province<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 2020, a 200-year-old tree from the forests of the Schl\u00e4gl Abbey in the district of Klaffer am Hochficht in Upper Austria had the honour of gracing the square and market. Originally some 40m in length, around 33m of the spruce made it to the Rathausplatz<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"338\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rathaustree.jpg\" alt=\"The Rathaus Christmas tree\" class=\"wp-image-49303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rathaustree.jpg 338w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rathaustree-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(The Vienna Christmas tree back in 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get to the tree<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow the lights. Simply wend your way to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/rathaus-2\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"267\">the Rathaus<\/a>, and it&#8217;s hard to miss the tree, it being rather tall and tree-shaped. A nativity scene decorates the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Subway: the Rathaus has its own subway station: the appropriately-titled Rathaus stop on the U2 line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trams: lines 1, 71 and D that travel around the giant Ring boulevard all stop at Rathausplatz\/Burgtheater, which is opposite the entrance to the Christmas market. Line 2 also stops at Rathaus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Rathausplatz, 1010 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1IV8M9-mH8kPwIX-r4le-2hv35XE\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an ever-changing world, one thing stays constant: taxes the huge Christmas tree in front of the Rathaus (city hall), an annual gift to Vienna from one of the other provinces in Austria or the Italian province of S\u00fcdtirol. A tree of friendship (Festive illumination of the Christmas tree back in 2024 with Vienna&#8217;s Mayor, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christmasmarkets","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6789"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87945,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789\/revisions\/87945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}