You have to go back into the late 13th century to find first roots of Christmas markets in Vienna. These days a so-called December Market was set up by a few stallholders to cheer up Viennas citizens. In the 16th century it was the ‘Thomasmarket’, and in the 18th century they called it Christmas- or crib-market.
Vienna started to celebrate Christmas in a way as we would now recognize it the 19th century, during the Biedermeier period. Aristocrats put up Christmas trees in line with the northern German tradition. This was also the time when people started to give Christmas presents.
The main market finally settled at its current location on City Hall Square in 1975. With its around 150 stalls it attracts more than three million visitors every year. Many other markets can be found all across Vienna. We will present a few of them over the next weeks in our blog…
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