Last updated: September 2026
A neighbourhood (Grätzl) in Vienna's 1st district. Strongest on Public transport and Safety, while Affordability is more of a trade-off.
Grand façades and endless shop windows set the scene — this is the centre of the luxury shopping strip. You're right in the middle of city life here, even if quiet and greenery play a smaller part.
Gründerzeit apartment houses shape the streetscape.
The six dimensions
Light & built form
Graben/Kohlmarkt is densely and tall built — light falls narrow between the facades, and the lanes turn shady earlier in the day. Measured at the Grätzl centre: about 9.5 hours of direct sun on the longest day, about 1 in December. The low winter sun (only ~18° at noon in Vienna) mostly stays behind the rooftops here. In the evening the sun disappears early behind the buildings. How bright a single flat is comes down to floor, orientation and courtyard vs. street side — the measurement is for the Grätzl centre.
☀️ Experience the sun's path here →Light & sun in Vienna
The roofs above Graben/Kohlmarkt
Within 450 m of the centre, buildings carry around 14 hectares of roof that would be greenable by pitch — 32.6 % of the roof area there, calculated from the City of Vienna’s official roof model. On that area roughly 26,800 m³ of rain a year would stay up top instead of entering the sewer, by the model. The modelled heat index here is 74 out of 100, and with 165 street trees in the same radius the neighbourhood sits below the median of 808 — three figures side by side, not a recommendation.
The radius is a fixed reference area, not a neighbourhood boundary, and the circles of adjacent neighbourhoods overlap — so these figures cannot be added up. Whether any of these roofs is already green is unknown to a geometry model; whether it carries the build-up is for a structural engineer to say. Geometry as of 2016. All districts compared →
Similar neighbourhoods
StephansplatzBurggasseWestbahnstraßeSpitalgasse
Nearby neighbourhoods
Stephansplatz, 1st districtSchottenring, 1st district
Related guides
🍺 Where do you live with a Beisl round the corner?☕ Where do you live in the middle of Vienna’s café culture?
Frequently asked about Graben/Kohlmarkt
What is it like to live in Graben/Kohlmarkt?
Graben/Kohlmarkt reaches a Living Score of 80 out of 100 (Very good place to live). It is strongest on Public transport (Excellent), followed by Safety; Affordability is more of a trade-off. The score combines six dimensions from open data (City of Vienna OGD, OpenStreetMap, Wiener Linien, Statistics Austria).
Where is Graben/Kohlmarkt?
Graben/Kohlmarkt is in Vienna's 1st district (Innere Stadt), postal code 1010.
How safe is Graben/Kohlmarkt?
Safety in Graben/Kohlmarkt: Excellent (8.0/10), based on official police crime statistics. A non-binding orientation value for the area, not a statement about any single address.
Is Graben/Kohlmarkt dangerous?
Short answer: no — Vienna consistently ranks among the safest large cities in the world, and that holds across all 23 districts. Graben/Kohlmarkt sits at 8.0 out of 10 on the safety dimension (Excellent). One thing worth knowing when reading such figures: crime statistics count offences where they HAPPEN, not where those affected live. Districts with major stations, nightlife and many visitors therefore collect more reports without a residential street a few corners away being any different. Within a district, the gap between a busy hub and a quiet side street is usually larger than the gap between two districts.
How good is public transport in Graben/Kohlmarkt?
Public transport in Graben/Kohlmarkt: Excellent (9.8/10) – based on proximity to metro, tram and bus (Wiener Linien).
Is Graben/Kohlmarkt noisy?
Quiet in Graben/Kohlmarkt: Good (6.8/10), based on traffic-noise exposure. Part of the area sits along Franz-Josefs-Kai; a few streets further in it gets noticeably quieter. Right there you raise your voice to talk, and a phone call on the pavement gets tiring (calculated above 70 dB by day). At night it calms down noticeably — the level drops below the threshold at which mapping begins. The busiest named axes nearby, by official annual traffic volume: Franz-Josefs-Kai (~25,933/day), Opernring (~24,560/day), Burgring (~21,876/day).
How hot does Graben/Kohlmarkt get in summer?
In summer Graben/Kohlmarkt is heat-prone — warmer than the Vienna average. Heat index 74 of 100 (Vienna average 57), modelled. Dense, enclosed building form stores the day's heat and releases it slowly at night; there is little green to cool it. This is a MODELLED index (from building form, density, green space, street trees, water and elevation, checked against the City of Vienna's climate analysis map), not a measured temperature and not a count of hot days. Within one area it varies a lot: a green courtyard and a treeless street a few metres apart are not the same place.
How green is Graben/Kohlmarkt?
Green space in Graben/Kohlmarkt: Average (5.5/10). Larger parks are a bit further away.
Who is Graben/Kohlmarkt a good fit for?
Most of all for people who value short trips by public transport and a safe area. Less ideal if good value for money is at the very top of your list — that's the trade-off here.
Is Graben/Kohlmarkt expensive?
Guide prices for Graben/Kohlmarkt: rent around €27.5/m², buying around €13,800/m² (indexed orientation). Value for money in the Living Score: Limited.
How is the natural light in Graben/Kohlmarkt?
Graben/Kohlmarkt is densely and tall built — light falls narrow between the facades, and the lanes turn shady earlier in the day. Measured at the Grätzl centre: about 9.5 hours of direct sun on the longest day, about 1 in December. How bright a single flat is comes down to floor, orientation and courtyard vs. street side — the measurement is for the Grätzl centre.
What kind of buildings shape Graben/Kohlmarkt?
In Graben/Kohlmarkt: Gründerzeit apartment houses shape the streetscape. Per the City of Vienna building typology, around 46% of the residential buildings here are Gründerzeit apartment houses (1848–1918). How a single flat is laid out still depends on the individual building.
How much roof area around Graben/Kohlmarkt could be greened?
Within 450 m of the centre of Graben/Kohlmarkt, around 14 hectares of roof are greenable by pitch — 32.6 % of the roof area there. The figure comes from the City of Vienna’s Generalised Roof Model LOD2.1: for every roof face the official area and the official pitch are read and sorted by the thresholds of the City’s green-roof potential cadastre (up to 5° intensive and extensive, up to 20° extensive, minimum 5 m²). It says nothing about which of those roofs is already green, and nothing about statics.