This residential district, with its elegant streets and 18C façades, takes its name from Emperor Josef II. It lies just behind the University and the Law Courts which is why so many students and lawyers can be seen in the local restaurants. There are well-known theatres such as the Theater in der Josefstadt, founded in 1788, an interesting Popular Art and Traditions Museum, churches of course and, as is often the case in Vienna, historical reminders of a few famous people.

The church was commissioned by Maximilian to commemorate the escape of his brother Franz-Josef after an assassination attempt in 1853. The openwork steeples of the Votivkirche or Votive Church are 99m high. Inspired by Cologne Cathedral, it was built in Gothic style, adhering to historicist principles applied to buildings near the Ring. Inside are two Renaissance works, the recumbent figure of Count Salm who resisted Suleyman the Magnificent in 1529 and the Antwerp Altar (1520).

In 1766, Emperor Josef II opened up to the public a large walled hunting ground. The Prater was soon used as an amusement park and for rides on horseback or in carriages. People went there to dance the waltz, still extremely popular in the Belle-Époque. The Prater itself is huge (over 5km long) but the fairground known as the Wurstelpark is the most popular part, with its giant Ferris Wheel immortalised by Carol Reed in his film, The Third Man.

Despite the restricted space available on the small square, Lukas von Hildebrandt created a building with an impression of grandeur, Peterskirche or the Church of St Peter (1702-1733). The sumptuous interior decoration, one of the finest in the city, will astound visitors as they enter and find their attention drawn, not to the dome or chapel altar pieces, but to the large gilded pulpit and monumental altar with a gilded wooden statue of St John Nepomuceno's fall into the Moldau.