Vienna Opens Underground Bar

Vienna is home to a new cocktail bar, but it’s not your average watering hole.

Called Krypt, the bar is tucked away in a 200-year-old cellar transformed into a bar after two years of renovations.

The bar is situated between the iconic Votivkirche and the Sigmund Freud Museum. The cellar was bricked over by a real estate firm expanding the building above. When it was discovered, historians surmised it was a semi-legal speakeasy in the 1950s and 1960s, potentially hosting jazz greats and underground dance parties.

The bar oozes elegance, despite an unassuming doorway that leads eight meters underground. The space is definitely on the radar, drawing long lines on weekend evenings.

A low-lit stairway leads to stone arches and a seven-meter-long walnut bar with black Italian marble. Gold pipes above set the ceiling off, and hidden alcoves are stocked with leather couches and bean-bag chairs. The bar also includes shuffleboard. There’s no dress code or guest list, and the bar is smoke-free — a rarity in Vienna.

The bar also features Vienna’s smallest art museum and shuffleboard — no detail here has been overlooked in design terms. Architectural firm Buro KLK made each corner of Krypt to enhance the original brickwork and archways, creating a spacious atmosphere of luxury, which can be enjoyed by students and celebrities alike — Jude Law is said to have visited in late 2017.