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Sources for the video

How many houses in Vienna are over 100 years old?

How many houses in Vienna are over 100 years old? At least 28,985, all built before 1919, says the City of Vienna’s map, and the Maxerl photographs every single one, on foot. The idea came from a viewer. These are the sources for the video, statement by statement, the photos of the landmarks and how we counted and calculated.

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Video · 0:56 · with sound, in German

What the video shows

The video opens with the poster “Häuser über 100 Jahre: wie viele?” (houses over 100 years old: how many?) in front of Otto Wagner’s Majolikahaus on the Linke Wienzeile, on a plate from 1900, when it was brand new, and asks: take a guess, 3,000, 30,000 or 300,000? We counted on the City of Vienna’s map “Bauperioden und Bautypologien Wien” (construction periods and building types): at least 28,985 houses there were built before 1919, 26,172 in the Gründerzeit (1848 to 1918) and 2,813 earlier still. So the right order of magnitude is 30,000.

At least, because the map does not date every house: only about a third of all Viennese houses lie in one of its areas, and it does not separate houses from 1919 to 1926. Statistics Austria’s 2023 register-based census counts 31,843 buildings before 1919; our count reaches 91 % of that.

The Maxerl photographs every house, on foot. At 5 km/h, 10 seconds per photo and 8 hours a day, every round takes at least four weeks; ours, about 1,200 kilometres from the Majolikahaus back to the Majolikahaus, is finished on day 42. Whether it can be done faster is open. Along the way the Maxerl turns into an emperor in stages: first a white mutton-chop beard grows, then come a plumed hat and a plate camera, from day 20 the uniform, and at the end he waves from a gold frame; he also starts out speaking old Viennese dialect and ends up speaking like the court.

He stops at landmarks, each with a real photo from the time from the Wien Museum: on day 1 at the Upper Belvedere (finished 1723), on day 3 at St. Stephen’s Cathedral (south tower 1433) and at the Hofburg, whose Michaeler wing was not finished until 1893, after the Opera; right next door, on Ruprechtsplatz, stands Vienna’s oldest church, from the 12th century. On day 9 the Riesenrad (1897), on day 11 the State Opera (1869) and the Secession (1898), on day 30 the Votivkirche (1879), on day 38 Schönbrunn Palace, built from 1696. Most of the old houses stand in Währing and Ottakring, about 2,000 each; which district comes first, the map and the register-based census answer differently. The times at the stops are those of our round, which starts at 8:00.

At the end the video says: send us a house, we’ll tell you how old it is. Any one, doesn’t have to be yours. For example this house: Linke Wienzeile 40, built 1898, the Majolikahaus. The map knows a construction period for just over a quarter of all Viennese houses, for most in districts 1 to 9 and hardly any in Donaustadt; plus the year of construction from the city’s building information. How a family lived in such a house around 1900 is shown in our video “Vienna’s old tenement houses, around 1900”.

Real in the video are the map and the count (City of Vienna), the base map (OpenStreetMap) and all nine photos (Wien Museum, CC0); drawn are the Maxerl and the houses and landmarks passing behind him; music and sound effects are AI-generated, and the film has no voice. Thanks to a viewer for the idea!

Sources and image credits

Data

For the film we cropped, converted and redrew the data.

Pictures

  1. Carl Gottlieb Röder (Druckerei), Ernst Wasmuth Verlag (Verlag), 6., Linke Wienzeile 40 [vormals Magdalenenstraße 40a] - Wohnhaus (Otto Wagner’s Majolikahaus, collotype after a photograph, plate 8 of the portfolio “Neubauten in Wien” (new buildings in Vienna; Wasmuth, Berlin 1900)), 1900. Wien Museum, inv. no. 93075/8. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the picture, without frame line, “TAFEL 8” and caption, straightened; in the film at the beginning full-frame in portrait format with a slight zoom, on it the poster “Häuser über 100 Jahre: wie viele?” (houses over 100 years old: how many?) and the drawn Maxerl, then it shrinks into its point on the map; at the end full-frame again, the Maxerl as an emperor in a drawn gold frame and the label “Zum Beispiel dieses Haus: Linke Wienzeile 40, gebaut 1898” (for example this house: built 1898); on screen “Majolikahaus 1900, „Neubauten in Wien“ · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  2. Bruno Reiffenstein (photographer), 3., Belvedere - Belvederegarten - Blick gegen Oberes Belvedere, around 1910 (photograph). Wien Museum, inv. no. 106230/74. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; on screen “Foto: Bruno Reiffenstein, um 1910 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  3. August Stauda (photographer), 1., Stephansplatz 1 - Stephansdom - Südfassade - erhöhte Ansicht, around 1890. Wien Museum, inv. no. 106602/1. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; on screen “Foto: August Stauda, um 1890 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  4. Gerlach & Wiedling (Buch- und Kunstverlag) (publisher), 1., Michaelerplatz 1 - Hofburg - Michaelertrakt, around 1900. Wien Museum, inv. no. 241044/1. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; of the glass negative, the preview the museum offers as a positive; on screen “Foto: Gerlach & Wiedling, um 1900 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  5. unknown, 2., Volksprater - Volksbelustigungen - Blick gegen Riesenrad, Lustspieltheater und Restaurant "zum Eisvogel", around 1905. Wien Museum, inv. no. 229514. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; on screen “Foto: unbekannt, um 1905 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  6. August Stauda (photographer), 1., Opernring 2 - Staatsoper, around 1903. Wien Museum, inv. no. 106640/1. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; on screen “Foto: August Stauda, um 1903 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  7. Gerlach & Wiedling (Buch- und Kunstverlag) (publisher), 1., Friedrichstraße 12 - Secession, 1904. Wien Museum, inv. no. 240756/1. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; of the glass negative, the preview the museum offers as a positive; on screen “Foto: Gerlach & Wiedling, 1904 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  8. August Stauda (photographer), 9., Rooseveltplatz - Votivkirche, around 1900. Wien Museum, inv. no. 197195. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; on screen “Foto: August Stauda, um 1900 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.
  9. Martin Löfgren (photographer), 13., Schönbrunn, Schloß - Hauptfassade, 1905. Wien Museum, inv. no. 316564/1/5. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: only the print, without mount, colour chart and caption strip; in the film it pops up as a print with a light border when the Maxerl takes the photo, develops out of white and then moves into the album at the left edge; of the glass negative, the preview the museum offers as a positive; on screen “Foto: Martin Löfgren, 1905 · Wien Museum (CC0)”.

AI, voice and music

No picture in the film is painted or animated with AI: the City of Vienna’s map with the houses, the base map and all nine photos are real. The Maxerl is a drawn stick figure; the viewfinder, the golden route thread, the gold of the houses, the counter and the captions are drawn from the data. The facades passing behind the Maxerl, including the landmarks among them, are drawn symbols, not pictures of the real buildings. The film has no voice. Music and sound effects are AI-generated: the music with Google Lyria 3 Pro via OpenRouter, the sound effects with ElevenLabs; only one pop is synthesised.

Each statement in the film and its sources

  1. On screen the poster “IN WIEN · Häuser über 100 Jahre: wie viele?” (in Vienna: houses over 100 years old, how many?) on the 1900 plate of the Majolikahaus, then “Schätz mal: 3.000, 30.000 oder 300.000?” (take a guess: 3,000, 30,000 or 300,000?). The Maxerl: “I zähl nach!” (I’ll count!) The Majolikahaus is house 1 of the round.

    “Over 100 years” means built before 1919, so in 2026 at least 107 years old. The right order of magnitude for the guess is 30,000; the other two are each a power of ten off. At the end the video says “at least 28,985”: the map does not cover every house (our count reaches 91 % of the register-based census), and it does not separate houses from 1919 to 1926, its class runs to 1945.

  2. On screen “Annahmen: 8 h am Tag, 5 km/h, 10 s je Foto” (assumptions: 8 h a day, 5 km/h, 10 s per photo). A white viewfinder moves across the map, a golden thread draws the round, the counter shows houses, day and district. The Maxerl: “Da schau her!” (well, look at that!)

    5 km/h, 10 seconds per photo and 8 hours a day are assumptions, not measurements. They give a lower bound that holds for every round: at least four weeks (32.3 days); it is in the post texts, not in the video. The counter counts the houses whose moment in the round has been reached, a landmark at the flash.

  3. Day 1, 14:49: Upper Belvedere, label “fertig 1723” (finished 1723), with a real photo from around 1910.

    The sources give different start dates (1717 or 1720), so the video only says when it was finished. Times at the stops are those of our round, which starts at 8:00.

  4. Day 3, 11:30: St. Stephen’s Cathedral, label “Südturm 1433” (south tower 1433), with a real photo from around 1890.

  5. Day 3, 12:22: Hofburg, label “Michaelertrakt 1893 · jünger als die Oper” (Michaeler wing 1893 · younger than the Opera), with a real photo from around 1900. The Maxerl: “Is der Kaiser z’Haus?” (is the emperor at home?)

    The Hofburg is much older; only this one wing, the Michaeler wing, was not finished until 1893. That is why “Michaelertrakt” is on the label. The Opera had been open since 1869.

  6. Day 3, 14:51, Ruprechtsplatz: label “Wiens älteste Kirche · 12. Jh., gleich nebenan” (Vienna’s oldest church · 12th century, right next door); on screen “Ruprechtskirche: TU Wien, Wien Geschichte Wiki”. The Maxerl: “Oida, is de alt!” (man, that’s old!)

    “Vienna’s oldest church”, never “Vienna’s oldest building”: no source says that. Because the map dates the church after its reconstruction, the Maxerl stops at the counted house next door, hence “right next door”; the church stays stone-coloured in the picture.

  7. Day 9, 13:55: Riesenrad (the Giant Ferris Wheel), label “fertig 1897” (finished 1897), with a real photo from around 1905. The Maxerl: “Is des a Haus? Zählt eh!” (is that a house? It counts anyway!)

    The city’s map lists the Riesenrad as a building with its own address, so it counts; hence the Maxerl’s question.

  8. Day 11, 14:04: State Opera, label “fertig 1869” (finished 1869), photo from around 1903; the Maxerl, now with a plumed hat: “Habe die Ehre!” (my respects!) At 15:58 the Secession, label “fertig 1898”, photo from 1904: “Scho vergoldet? A Frechheit!” (gilded already? An outrage!)

    The joke at the Secession is about its golden laurel dome. The speech bubbles are style, old Viennese dialect and later court language, not quotations.

  9. From day 20 the Maxerl wears a uniform. Day 25, 11:04, in Währing: label “Rekord: die meisten · Währing und Ottakring” (record: the most · Währing and Ottakring), both districts light up white on the map; on screen “Registerzählung 2023: Statistik Austria”. The Maxerl: “Wir sind sehr zufrieden.” (we are very satisfied.)

    The map and the register-based census name the same two districts at the top, only in a different order; that is why the video names both and neither alone.

  10. On screen “Weiter, Tag für Tag.” (on, day by day.) Day 30, 13:28: Votivkirche, label “fertig 1879” (finished 1879), with a real photo from around 1900.

  11. Day 38, 12:30: Schönbrunn Palace, label “gebaut ab 1696” (built from 1696), with a real photo from 1905. The Maxerl, as an emperor: “Endlich wieder daheim.” (home at last.)

    “From 1696”, because the sources give 1695 or 1696 as the start and today’s building only took shape with the rebuilding until 1749. The Maxerl does not walk through the palace: it photographs it from the street, like every house off the paths.

  12. The golden thread of the whole round lights up: “Tag 42: die ganze Runde, rund 1.200 km.” (day 42: the whole round, about 1,200 km.) Back at the Majolikahaus, the Maxerl as an emperor in a gold frame: “Über 100 Jahre alt, mindestens: 28.985 Häuser” (over 100 years old, at least: 28,985 houses), “zu Fuß in 42 Tagen” (on foot in 42 days), plus “Annahmen: 5 km/h, 10 s je Foto, 8 Stunden am Tag”. The Maxerl: “Es hat mich sehr gefreut.” (it was a great pleasure.)

    “Day 42” and “about 1,200 km” are our round (1,243.1 km), not the shortest. It is built from all street segments on which a house stands, connected and completed so that it closes, then shortened. Whether it can be done faster is open; in under four weeks, certainly not. “Es hat mich sehr gefreut” is court language as a style; the film does not claim a quotation.

  13. Closing caption: “Schick uns ein Haus, wir sagen dir, wie alt es ist.” (send us a house, we’ll tell you how old it is.) and “Irgendeins, muss nicht deins sein 👇” (any one, doesn’t have to be yours); at the Majolikahaus the label “Zum Beispiel dieses Haus: Linke Wienzeile 40, gebaut 1898” (for example this house: built 1898).

    The map knows a construction period for just over a quarter of all Viennese houses, for most in the inner districts and for few in the outer ones; plus the year of construction from the building information, where there is one. The reply names the source and does not repeat the address. “Doesn’t have to be yours”, so that nobody has to reveal where they live. The example is the Majolikahaus, a landmark; that is why its address appears in the film.

Literature and sources

How we calculated

Counted and calculated on 7 November 2026, on the City of Vienna’s construction-period map, addresses and building information, the 2023 register-based census and OpenStreetMap.

House
A building with its own main address and building point in the City of Vienna’s addresses: 190,074 in Vienna.
Over 100 years
A house counts if, in the areas of the map in which its building point lies, the Gründerzeit (1848 to 1918) is the most frequent period (26,172 houses) or the time before 1848 (2,813). Together 28,985, all built before 1919, so in 2026 at least 107 years old. For the Gründerzeit alone, neighbouring rules give 25,455 to 26,884.
Why “at least”
The 2023 register-based census counts 31,843 buildings before 1919; our count reaches 91 % of that. The map dates only about a third of all houses (58,282 of the 190,074 lie in one of its areas), and it does not separate houses from 1919 to 1926, its class runs to 1945. The register counts buildings, including courtyard and outbuildings without their own main address.
Assumptions
5 km/h, 10 seconds per photo, 8 hours a day (set, not measured).
Lower bound on foot
The entrance of every house at the nearest street or named path within 60 m, path network from OpenStreetMap without pavements. A spanning tree in network distance over the entrances of the 28,890 houses on a path is 887.9 km long; no round can be shorter. With 28,985 photos that is 32.3 days of 8 hours, so at least four weeks.
Our round
All street segments with a house, connected and completed so that it closes, then shortened: 1,243.1 km from the Majolikahaus back to the Majolikahaus, 41.1 days of 8 hours, the last photo on day 42. About 40 % above the lower bound; whether it can be done faster is open.
Off the paths
95 houses lie more than 60 m from any path of the network, among them all 41 parts of Schönbrunn Palace. They are photographed from the nearest house of the round, each with its 10 seconds.
Counter
One photo per house, 28,985 together. The counter shows the houses whose moment in the round has been reached; a landmark counts at the flash.
The most
Map (Gründerzeit, our rule): Währing 2,035, Ottakring 1,968, Landstraße 1,686; with the older houses added it stays the same two. Register-based census 2023, buildings before 1919: Ottakring 2,103, Währing 2,064, Landstraße 1,894. Both name the same two at the top, hence only as a pair.
Oldest church
The Ruprechtskirche is considered Vienna’s oldest church; its surviving building is from the 12th century (TU Wien 2011, Wien Geschichte Wiki). The map dates its area after the reconstruction (1946 to 1976), so it does not count; counted is the house next door (map 1781 to 1848).
Landmarks
Upper Belvedere, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Hofburg (Michaeler wing), Riesenrad, State Opera, Secession, Votivkirche and Schönbrunn Palace: address in the City of Vienna’s addresses, counted, day and time of the round (start 8:00). Construction dates from two sources each. Each is “over 100 years old” twice over: the map dates it before 1919, and the photo shows it finished around 1890 to 1910.
How old is a house?
The map knows a construction period for 54,385 of 190,074 houses (28.6 %): in districts 1 to 9 for 71.8 to 92.9 %, in Donaustadt for 4.0 %. Plus the year of construction from the building information, where there is one; for the Majolikahaus: 1884 to 1918 according to the map, 1898 according to the building information.

How wohnwahn measures