Vienna Christmas Market (Wiener Christkindlmarkt)

Vienna's Christkindlmarkt in front of the neo-Gothic City Hall has become one of the most recognisable Christmas markets in Europe, tracing its roots back to a December market first recorded in the city in the thirteenth century. Each year from mid-November through the New Year, the square fills with wooden stalls selling Glühwein, roasted chestnuts, gingerbread and traditional handicrafts.

The City Hall building itself is illuminated for the season, and the surrounding park is strung with lights, giving the market a setting that regularly ranks among the most photographed Christmas scenes in Europe.

Vienna's wider Christmas season extends well beyond this single market — numerous smaller markets pop up across the city's historic squares — but the City Hall market remains the flagship, drawing visitors from across the world into Austria's particular, deeply traditional version of the European Christmas market.