Vienna The Third Man Film Audio Walking Tour
Follow The Third Man from Harry Lime's doorway past Am Hof, Hoher Markt, Palais Pallavicini and the Sacher to the sewer entrance and the museum.
- 7 stops and 18 minutes of stories, told as you reach each place
- The intro and stop 1 are free in the app: try before you buy
- Download before you go; the audio plays without signal (the street map needs a connection)
- Walking with friends? Pick 1 to 10 seats; everyone hears each stop on their own phone, at the same moment
30 seconds of the real narration
Plays in the free Walk With Me app on iPhone and Android.
A taste of the narration
You're on Schreyvogelgasse, a quiet lane that slopes gently downhill. Find number 8 and look at its doorway.Stop 1, Harry Lime's doorway
About this tour
The Third Man was shot in real streets, at night, in a city still in ruins, and those streets are mostly still here. On foot you feel how close everything is: the doorway, the vanishing square, the trap and the hotel, all a few minutes apart, the way they are in the film. You also see a Vienna that has healed, where the bomb damage has been rebuilt and the four powers are long gone. If you'd like company along the way, open the Walk With Me live map to find other people out walking Vienna right now.
The route
3.4 km in walking order from Harry Lime's doorway to Third Man Museum. Stop 1 is free in the app.
- 1Harry Lime's doorwayAn ordinary apartment doorway on a sloping lane near Beethoven's old lodgings, and the film's best-known entrance, caught in a beam of window light.Free in the app
- 2Am HofA broad square whose Marian column the film seems to hide, and the poster kiosk where a running man vanishes.
- 3Hoher MarktA rebuilt square around the baroque marriage fountain, where the police lay their trap, and what makes Holly agree to be the bait.
- 4Palais PallaviciniA baroque palace with caryatids at the door, cast as Harry's apartment house, and the four-power city Holly walks into as a stranger.
- 5Hotel SacherThe grand hotel facing the Opera, Holly's lodging in the film, and the lunch in 1948 where Graham Greene picked up his story.
- 6Girardipark sewer entranceA red star-shaped grating in a small park by Karlsplatz, the way down into the tunnels, and what the chase was really filmed in.
- 7Third Man MuseumA private museum on Pressgasse, in the old Soviet sector, holding the zither behind the film's tune and how Reed found its player.€12 to go in, optional
Where the story happens
Each stop, the moment of the story it belongs to, and what is there today.
| Stop | In the story | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Harry Lime's doorway | Late one night Holly sees a face lit up in this doorway, and gives chase. | Schreyvogelgasse 8, an ordinary apartment house; Beethoven once had an apartment along the lane. |
| 2. Am Hof | Harry vanishes into an advertising kiosk with a stair down to the sewers. | The kiosk and Anna's building are gone; the Marian column stands in the middle. |
| 3. Hoher Markt | The police hide in the shadows around the fountain to trap Harry. | The marriage fountain still stands in a square rebuilt after war damage. |
| 4. Palais Pallavicini | Harry's apartment house, where Holly arrives and is told Harry is dead. | A baroque palace rented out for events; the story's address belongs to another building. |
| 5. Hotel Sacher | Holly's hotel, paid for at first by the military police. | A five-star hotel opposite the State Opera, next to Café Mozart. |
| 6. Girardipark sewer entrance | Harry climbs down into the sewers for the final chase. | Wien Kanal's Third Man Tour starts here, May to October, Thursday to Sunday, age 12 and up; book ahead. |
| 7. Third Man Museum | No scene here: you hear the ending, in the sewers and at the Zentralfriedhof. | A private museum with Anton Karas's zither, open to individual visitors on Saturday afternoons. |
Before you go
The walking adds up to about 47 minutes, so allow around two hours with time at each stop. The route is paved and mostly flat, with a gentle slope at the start. The film's best scenes happen at night, so an evening start gives you the right shadows in the old lanes, but the walk works at any hour. Two things to plan around. The city's sewer tour, the Third Man Tour run by Wien Kanal, the city sewer authority, starts at stop six. It runs only in the warmer months and on certain days, and it has a minimum age of 12, so check before you go and book ahead. The Third Man Museum at the end is a private museum that opens to individual visitors on Saturday afternoons, so if you want to go inside, time your walk for a Saturday and check before you go. The start is a few minutes' walk from the Herrengasse subway station, and the Kettenbrückengasse station is closest to the end.
What costs extra
1 stop has a ticket to go inside. The story plays outside, so going in is your choice.
| Stop | Inside | Ticket from |
|---|---|---|
| 7. Third Man Museum | Optional | €12 |
Cheaper in a bundle
Toilets and water
13 toilets near the route, 4 free18 drinking fountains
Photos: Werckmeister / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5; Gugerell / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.