Hoher Markt

Hoher Markt Review

This square was badly damaged during World War II, but the Anker Clock at the east end survived the artillery fire. The huge mechanical timepiece took six years (1911-17) to build and still attracts crowds at noon when the full panoply of mechanical figures representing Austrian historical personages parades by. The figures are identified on a plaque to the bottom left of the clock. The graceless buildings erected around the square since 1945 do little to show off the square's lovely Baroque centerpiece, the St. Joseph Fountain (portraying the marriage of Joseph and Mary), designed in 1729 by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach, son of the great Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach.

The Hoher Markt does harbor one wholly unexpected attraction, however: underground Roman ruins. Hoher Markt 3. €4. Tues.-Sun. 9-6.