Living in the Arsenal — what is it like?
Short and honest: you live among brick walls built between 1849 and 1856, on a rise south of the Gürtel, with the Museum of Military History on the same site and the main station right next door. The trade-off: the U-Bahn is not at the door, and on three sides the Gürtel, the railway and the Südosttangente motorway run past.
Living Snapshot — the area in numbers
The Arsenal is not a Grätzl of its own in Vienna Living Map’s data — what is rated are the residential areas around it: Erdberg and Rennweg across the Gürtel, the Sonnwendviertel across the tracks.
What shapes daily life
The Arsenal was built from 1849 to 1856 as an imperial artillery arsenal, a response to the revolution of 1848: a rectangle of 688 by 480 metres in bare brick, its edges formed by tall, tower-like barracks and low depot wings. Among its architects were Ludwig Förster, Theophil Hansen, Eduard van der Nüll, August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Carl Roesner. Today people live inside it: several historic buildings were converted into housing, others newly built as flats. The Arsenal is a census district of its own — 2,058 people lived here at the 2001 census.
Daily life has two sides. Outwards the Arsenal is a monument of gates, towers and long façades. Inside lies a patchwork of homes, the rehearsal stages of the Burgtheater and the State Opera, TU Wien laboratories and one of Vienna’s largest tennis complexes. For the weekly shop and primary school you head out, for instance across the Arsenalsteg footbridge into the Sonnwendviertel.
What works surprisingly well
The station next door: the Hauptbahnhof adjoins the Arsenal to the west. Bus 69A stops at the edge of the site (Lilienthalgasse, Arsenalsteg — five or six minutes’ walk from its centre) and runs through the Sonnwendviertel to the station; tram 18 on the Gürtel is eight to ten minutes away on foot. If you often travel by train, the way is short.
There is more green than you would expect between the Gürtel and the tracks: the Schweizergarten in front of the Arsenal, with the Belvedere 21 at its edge, and across the Arsenalsteg the Sonnwendviertel, built around the Helmut-Zilk-Park.
What you consciously accept
The U-Bahn is not at the door: from the centre of the site it is a good twenty minutes’ walk to the U1 (Keplerplatz, Hauptbahnhof) or the U3 (Zippererstraße); buses and trams cover the way there. And the Arsenal is not purely residential — a Wien Energie district-heating plant and the Wien-Arsenal radio tower also stand on the site.
Traffic runs along three sides: the Landstraßer Gürtel to the north, the Eastern Railway tracks to the south-west, the Südosttangente motorway to the south-east. None of the three neighbouring Grätzl rises above quiet 6.3 (Vienna’s median: 6.8), and summers get warm: the modelled heat index there ranges from 60 to 68 out of 100, above the Vienna median of 56. The tall edge buildings stand between the street and the inside of the site — which way the windows face decides a lot here.
20 minutes of everyday life
Five stops, one continuous morning — every observation is true exactly here, not everywhere.
- Objekt 1, Ghegastraße 8:10
The former commander’s building is now flats and offices. Its façade recalls an Italian castle — and through its central wing you walk on to the museum. - Museum of Military History 8:13
Vienna’s first purpose-built museum, erected 1850 to 1857 to plans by Förster and Hansen. You live next door to it, in the same bare brick as the old buildings around it. - The middle of the site 8:18
Behind the historic edges it turns small-scale: after the war, civilian users moved in, such as the set workshops of the federal theatres, and new buildings went up in the former inner courtyard. Here the Arsenal is less a monument than a piece of city with its own paths. - Arsenal church 8:24
At the end of the central axis, in the south-east, stands the Arsenal church, built 1853 to 1856 to plans by Carl Roesner. Beyond the south-eastern edge of the site, the Südosttangente runs past. - Arsenalsteg 8:30
The bridge over the Eastern Railway tracks into the Sonnwendviertel: supermarket, primary school and the Helmut-Zilk-Park there, the U1 at Keplerplatz further west. Only a footbridge separates the Arsenal from its new neighbour.
Who is it for?
For anyone who likes living with history outside the window — brick, gates, long axes — and often leaves from the main station. If you need a fast daily U-Bahn ride to the centre, every trip here starts with a bus, a tram or a long walk.
Arsenal or Sonnwendviertel?
The two face each other with only the Eastern Railway tracks between them, linked by the Arsenalsteg. The Sonnwendviertel was built from 2009 to 2023 on the former freight station: new-build around the Helmut-Zilk-Park, the U1 at Keplerplatz three blocks west, and as a Grätzl a Living Score of 80 with affordability 7.8 and a summer-heat index of 60. The Arsenal is the older, more idiosyncratic side — brick instead of new-build, a museum instead of a park, and further from the U-Bahn. The district border runs between them too: asking rents around €22/m² in Landstraße, €15/m² in Favoriten; the land-register purchase median €6,549 versus €3,833 per m². District values — a single flat can differ considerably.
Open this place in Vienna Living Map →The Sonnwendviertel Grätzl portrait · Erdberg · Living near the Hauptbahnhof · Landstraße district · Karl-Marx-Hof
Method & sources
History and buildings: Wien Geschichte Wiki (City of Vienna), article “Arsenal”; Wikipedia, articles “Arsenal (Wien)” and “Sonnwendviertel” (read September 2026). The Living Snapshot shows the scores of the neighbouring Grätzl Erdberg, Sonnwendviertel and Rennweg from open data (City of Vienna OGD, OpenStreetMap, Wiener Linien, Statistics Austria) — orientation, not a rating of individual flats. Walking minutes: straight line from the centre of the site × 1.3 at 80 metres per minute, to the stops in the Wiener Linien timetable (GTFS). Rent: indexed median asking rent per district; purchase: land-register median (Statistics Austria). The summer-heat index is a modelled value, not a measured temperature.
Frequently asked
Can you live in the Arsenal?
Yes. Several historic buildings — among them the former commander’s building on Ghegastraße — were converted into housing, others newly built as flats. The Arsenal is not municipal housing: the state-owned Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft sold the complex to private investors in 2003.
When and why was the Arsenal built?
From 1849 to 1856, after the revolution of 1848: the imperial artillery arsenal was the first building of a fortress triangle that replaced the old city wall — together with the Rossauer barracks and the Franz Joseph barracks on the Stubenring. Among its architects were Ludwig Förster, Theophil Hansen, Eduard van der Nüll, August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Carl Roesner.
How is the Arsenal connected by public transport?
By bus and tram: the 69A stops at the edge of the site and runs through the Sonnwendviertel to the Hauptbahnhof, line 18 runs along the Landstraßer Gürtel, and at Quartier Belvedere — about a quarter of an hour on foot from the centre of the site — S-Bahn and trams stop. There is no U-Bahn station nearby: the U1 or U3 is a good twenty minutes’ walk away.
Which district is the Arsenal in?
The 3rd district, Landstraße. Until 1938 the site belonged to Favoriten, until 1874 to Wieden. It sits on a rise south of the Landstraßer Gürtel; the Hauptbahnhof adjoins it to the west, and across the tracks lies the Sonnwendviertel.
What is it like to live in the Arsenal?
Between history and traffic: old brick buildings, a museum as a neighbour and the main station next door — but no U-Bahn nearby and traffic on three sides. The Arsenal has no score of its own; the neighbouring Grätzl reach Living Scores of 78 (Erdberg), 80 (Sonnwendviertel) and 82 (Rennweg), strong on transit, weaker on quiet and summer heat.