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A canal bank at dusk with the moon over the water and city lights
The Donaukanal at dusk, by Otto Wagner’s Schützenhaus, June 2022. Geolina163 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Next stopWien Westbahnhofone night1995

Before Sunrise

Julie Delpy in 1995, lying back with one hand in her hair, in a dark velvet top
Julie Delpy, 1995. Fabrice Lévêque · CC BY-SA 3.0

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in Richard Linklater’s film: one night in Vienna, and every stop a small game. Then Paris, nine years later, and Messenia, in Greece, nine years after that.

Westbahnhof, late afternoon

Get off the train
with me?

Pick one.

The long, glazed 1950s hall of Vienna’s Westbahnhof, with a coffered ceiling
The hall at Westbahnhof, August 2013. Liberaler Humanist · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wien Westbahnhof

Vienna’s official Before Sunrise Walk begins at Westbahnhof, where Céline and Jesse decide to roam Vienna for a night. Austria’s tourist board calls the station the beginning and the end of Céline and Jesse’s story.

The station opened in 1858 as the Empress Elisabeth station. After it burned out in April 1945, a new hall was built between 1949 and 1954. A shopping centre, BahnhofCity Wien West, with about 17,000 square metres of shops, opened in November 2011.

A working station with shops, open every day. The post-war hall still stands.

Where we read it
Vienna Tourist Board

Before Sunrise Walk in the ivie app

From Westbahnhof · Free app, iOS and Android

Vienna’s official city-guide app takes you to eleven of the film’s locations, from Westbahnhof to the Riesenrad.

Get the walk

Alt & Neu · Windmühlgasse 10 · about 27 minutes in

The listening booth.
Make them look.

About 27 minutes into the film, Céline and Jesse take a Kath Bloom record into the shop’s listening booth and play “Come Here”. In the booth they cannot look each other in the eye: their glances dart back and forth and just miss. Try to get them to look up at the same time.

0 near misses

Press play by making one of them look.

The shop today

The shop still trades and little has changed inside, but the listening booth has gone; film memorabilia is on show instead. A Vienna city magazine calls it an institution, almost a sight in itself, and sends fans of the film there.

A working second-hand record shop, open Monday to Saturday. Check the day’s hours before you go.

Where we read it
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Before Sunrise walking tours

Vienna

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Out east, by the Danube

The quietest stop,
then the cabin.

A round chapel behind a low wall, with iron grave crosses in front
The chapel at the Cemetery of the Nameless, September 2005. Elimaus at de.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Friedhof der Namenlosen

Céline and Jesse walk through this burial ground on the south-eastern edge of the city. It holds people washed up by the Danube between 1840 and 1940: 478 unknown people were buried from 1840 to 1900, and the last burial was in 1940.

Richard Linklater smiling, in a dark western shirt, in front of a curtain
Richard Linklater, 2015. LBJ Foundation · CC BY 2.0
Vienna’s tourist board calls it a mysterious place that inspired Richard Linklater.

Daylight only; no entry after dark. Bus 76A or 76B to the end of the line, then 600 metres on foot.

Where we read it
A red wooden Ferris-wheel cabin, numbered 4, hanging from the wheel’s iron spokes
A Riesenrad cabin, July 2020. Manfred Werner (Tsui) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiener Riesenrad · Prater · 10.1 km from the cemetery as the crow flies

Two strangers, opposite ends of the bench. Shuffle closer.

Where we read it
Wiener Riesenrad

Ride the Riesenrad

Prater · Standard ticket €14.50 · 6 October: 10am–9.45pm

The wheel of the first kiss, turning since 1897. Open all year.

Buy tickets

Two coffee houses

A pretend call
and a fortune.

Gumpendorfer Straße 11

Café Sperl

A Viennese café room with marble tables, wooden chairs and hanging lamps
Inside Café Sperl, May 2023. Geolina163 · CC BY-SA 4.0

They play this game here. Pick up and make a call.

Monday to Saturday 7am–10pm, Sunday 10am–8pm. Closed on Sundays in July and August.

Where we read it

Franziskanerplatz 3

Kleines Café

A tall white corner house with a small café shopfront at street level
Kleines Café, November 2011. Michal Louč · CC BY-SA 3.0

Céline and Jesse sit outside this café at night, and a fortune teller comes to their table.

Cross my palm. Touch a line.

Monday to Saturday 10am–2am, Sunday 10am–midnight. Cash only. Tables out on the square in warm weather.

Where we read it

The Donaukanal, past midnight

Give the poet
a word.

On the canal bank by the Schützenhaus, Céline and Jesse meet a poet who writes poems for money. Here, every word you give him opens one of the night’s places.

“One word,” the slip says. “Any word.”

The small hours, then morning

Lie back and
look up.

The morning after, with a bottle of wine they have made off with, they are in the private gardens of Palais Schwarzenberg. The gardens are private; the palace adjoins the Belvedere. It is not on our map.

A bronze equestrian statue on a high plinth before the white palace front of the Albertina
The Archduke Albrecht monument, Albertina terrace, May 2023. Herbert Heim · CC BY-SA 4.0

Albertina terrace

Sitting on the steps. It is nearly time for the train.

They say a last goodbye on the steps here before going back to the station. The statue has stood here since 1899. The museum opens daily 10am–6pm, and until 9pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The terrace and steps are public. The museum opens daily 10am–6pm, to 9pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Where we read it
Hotel Sacher

Hotel Sacher Wien

Old town

Not a filming location: a hotel open since 1876, near the State Opera and the Albertina, whose terrace is where the night ends. Philharmoniker Straße 4.

Check rooms

Before Sunset · 2004 · nine years later

Paris,
in real time.

The second film runs in real time: its 80-plus minutes are the length of their afternoon. Start the clock and walk it at their pace.

Where we read it
Ethan Hawke, unshaven, in a dark suit and white shirt, looking at the camera
Ethan Hawke, Toronto, 2007. gdcgraphics (Flickr) · CC BY 2.0
Julie Delpy in 1995, lying back with one hand in her hair, in a dark velvet top
Julie Delpy, 1995. Fabrice Lévêque · CC BY-SA 3.0

00:00

The clock is stopped.

A green-fronted bookshop with its name in yellow letters and book racks outside
Shakespeare and Company, rue de la Bûcherie, August 2013. Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY · CC BY 2.0

37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris

Shakespeare and Company

In Before Sunset, nine years on, Jesse is at a book signing here for his first novel, largely based on that night in Vienna.

George Whitman founded the shop in 1951. It carries on from Sylvia Beach’s bookshop of 1919 to 1941, which published Joyce’s Ulysses.

The bookshop opens Monday to Wednesday 10am–8pm, Thursday to Saturday 10am–9pm and Sunday noon–7pm; the café opens daily 9am–7pm.

Monday to Wednesday 10am–8pm, Thursday to Saturday 10am–9pm, Sunday noon–7pm. Café daily 9am–7pm.

Where we read it
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, smiling, his arm round her shoulders, on a red carpet
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke at the Berlin premiere of Before Midnight, February 2013. Siebbi · CC BY 3.0

Before Midnight · 2013 · nine more years

Then Messenia,
no clock at all.

The third film is set in the southern Peloponnese, with the two of them nine years on from Paris. Its writers’ retreat is a real house, left to a museum by the man who built it; its village and its castle are open any day. Pick one.

Golden stone walls and round arches of a house, with a fig tree in front and terracotta roof tiles
Part of the Leigh Fermor house at Kalamitsi, Kardamyli, 2007: stone arches and a fig tree. R. de Salis (Rodolph) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Kalamitsi, Kardamyli, Messenia

The Leigh Fermor House

In Before Midnight, the couple’s writing retreat is the Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor House in Kardamyli, which the writer built in the 1960s.

Filming at Leigh Fermor’s house at Kardamyli took place in September 2012.

The house, a few kilometres from the village, was designed by the architect Nikos Hatzimichalis with the Leigh Fermors and finished in the mid-1960s.

In 1996 the couple left it to the Benaki Museum, asking that it stay open to the public.

After two years of restoration it reopened in July 2019; guided tours and visits are arranged on request.

For three months of each year the house is let to guests.

Visits are by guided tour, arranged in advance with the Benaki Museum, which owns the house. It is a few kilometres from the village.

Where we read it

Until the
next train.

Where it is now

20 places you can visit in Vienna, Paris and Messenia. The Palais Schwarzenberg gardens and Céline’s Paris courtyard are private: neither is on the map.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public footbridge over the River Wien, open at all hours. Wait for a U-Bahn train to pass underneath.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Monday to Saturday 10am–2am, Sunday 10am–midnight. Cash only. Tables out on the square in warm weather.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working church at Salvatorgasse 12. Climb the steps from Am Gestade; keep quiet inside.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public square, open at all hours, between the two great museums.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The canal paths are public. The Schützenhaus is a restaurant now.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The terrace and steps are public. The museum opens daily 10am–6pm, to 9pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

  1. A green iron footbridge arching over a lower railway bridge where a silver train passes
    The Zollamtssteg footbridge over the River Wien, with a U-Bahn train on the bridge below, May 2018. Pymouss · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Over the River Wien, 1010/1030 Vienna

    Zollamtssteg

    Soon after leaving the train, Céline and Jesse cross this bridge and stop to talk with two actors about their play.

    A public footbridge over the River Wien, open at all hours. Wait for a U-Bahn train to pass underneath.

    Where we read it
  2. A tall white corner house with a small café shopfront at street level
    Kleines Café on Franziskanerplatz, November 2011. Michal Louč · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Franziskanerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna

    Kleines Café

    Céline and Jesse sit outside this café at night, and a fortune teller comes to their table.

    Monday to Saturday 10am–2am, Sunday 10am–midnight. Cash only. Tables out on the square in warm weather.

    Where we read it
  3. A narrow Gothic church front at the top of a flight of stone steps between plain buildings
    Maria am Gestade from the west, with the steps up from the street, July 2015. C.Stadler/Bwag · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Salvatorgasse 12, 1010 Vienna

    Maria am Gestade

    In the evening Céline and Jesse come up the steps from Am Gestade and go into the empty church.

    A working church at Salvatorgasse 12. Climb the steps from Am Gestade; keep quiet inside.

    Where we read it
  4. White marble figures of a man and a woman beside a fountain, with greenery behind
    Statues by a fountain on Maria-Theresien-Platz, June 2018. Dietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Between the Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museum, 1010 Vienna

    Maria-Theresien-Platz

    Céline and Jesse walk through this square, past its sculptures and fountains, between the Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museum.

    A public square, open at all hours, between the two great museums.

    Where we read it
  5. A canal bank at dusk with the moon over the water and city lights
    The Donaukanal by Otto Wagner’s Schützenhaus at dusk, June 2022. Geolina163 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Obere Donaustraße 26, 1020 Vienna

    Donaukanal at the Schützenhaus

    On the canal bank by the Schützenhaus, Céline and Jesse meet a poet who writes poems for money.

    The canal paths are public. The Schützenhaus is a restaurant now.

    Where we read it
  6. A bronze equestrian statue on a high plinth before the white palace front of the Albertina
    The Archduke Albrecht monument on the Albertina terrace, May 2023. Herbert Heim · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna

    Albertina terrace

    In the morning Céline lies in Jesse’s lap below the statue of Archduke Albrecht, before they part.

    The terrace and steps are public. The museum opens daily 10am–6pm, to 9pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

    Where we read it

Stay

A bed after the night.

Neither hotel is in the film; both are a short walk from where it happens.

Hotel Sacher

Hotel Sacher Wien

Old town

Not a filming location: a hotel open since 1876, near the State Opera and the Albertina, whose terrace is where the night ends. Philharmoniker Straße 4.

Check rooms
25hours Hotels

25hours Hotel beim MuseumsQuartier

Neubau, 7th district

Not a filming location: a hotel at Lerchenfelder Straße 1–3, by the MuseumsQuartier and the Spittelberg lanes, with a rooftop bar.

Check rooms

Go there

Ride the wheel, walk the night.

The Riesenrad, Vienna’s own Before Sunrise walk, the Albertina, and guided walks.

Wiener Riesenrad

Ride the Riesenrad

Prater · Standard ticket €14.50 · 6 October: 10am–9.45pm

The wheel of the first kiss, turning since 1897. Open all year.

Buy tickets
Vienna Tourist Board

Before Sunrise Walk in the ivie app

From Westbahnhof · Free app, iOS and Android

Vienna’s official city-guide app takes you to eleven of the film’s locations, from Westbahnhof to the Riesenrad.

Get the walk
ALBERTINA

The Albertina

Albertinaplatz · Daily 10am–6pm · Wednesdays and Fridays to 9pm

The museum on the terrace where Céline and Jesse part in the morning.

Plan a visit
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Before Sunrise walking tours

Vienna

Live marketplace results for Vienna film-location walks. Check each itinerary.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

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What’s on

Pinball hall, Christmas lanes.

A gig in the old slaughterhouse in October and the Spittelberg market from November.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Two posters, two scripts, one booth song.

Original 1995 one-sheets from our store, the screenplays, the bookshop’s history and the soundtrack with “Come Here”.

Printed Originals · Our poster store

Before Sunrise (1995) — US one-sheet

An original 1995 one-sheet, 27 × 40 inches, rolled, mint.

In stock

View poster
Printed Originals · Our poster store

Before Sunrise (1995) — US one-sheet (previously folded)

An original 1995 one-sheet, 27 × 40 inches, rolled after folding, very good condition.

In stock

View poster
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Before Sunrise & Before Sunset: Two Screenplays

Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan

Both scripts in one Vintage paperback, 2005.

Find the book
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart

Edited by Krista Halverson

The bookshop’s own history, published by Shakespeare and Company in 2016.

Find the book
eBay · Ad / affiliate

Before Sunset and Before Sunrise

Various Artists · CD, Milan, 2004

Music from both films, with Kath Bloom’s “Come Here” from the listening booth and Julie Delpy’s “A Waltz for a Night”.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The timetable

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

22 of 22 places · 22 of 22 Moments

  • Wien Westbahnhof

    Europaplatz, 1150 Vienna

    • Get off the train

      Céline and Jesse decide to roam Vienna for one night.

  • Zollamtssteg

    Over the River Wien, 1010/1030 Vienna

    • The play about a cow

      On the bridge, two actors tell them about their play.

  • Teuchtler Alt & Neu

    Windmühlgasse 10, 1060 Vienna

    • The listening booth

      In the booth, to Kath Bloom’s “Come Here”, their glances just miss each other.

  • Café Sperl

    Gumpendorfer Straße 11, 1060 Vienna

    • The phone game

      They play-act phone calls to the people they love.

  • Kleines Café

    Franziskanerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna

    • The fortune teller

      A fortune teller comes to their table outside the café.

  • Wiener Riesenrad

    Riesenradplatz 1, Prater, 1020 Vienna

    • The first kiss

      They kiss for the first time in a cabin of the wheel.

  • Friedhof der Namenlosen

    Alberner Hafen, 1110 Vienna

    • The nameless

      They walk among the graves of people the Danube washed ashore.

  • Maria am Gestade

    Salvatorgasse 12, 1010 Vienna

    • The empty church

      They climb the steps and go into the empty church.

  • Maria-Theresien-Platz

    Between the Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museum, 1010 Vienna

    • Between the museums

      They walk through the square past its fountains.

  • Spittelberg

    Spittelberggasse, 1070 Vienna

    • The street performer

      They stop in the lanes to watch a street performer.

  • Arena Wien

    Baumgasse 80, 1030 Vienna

    • Pinball

      Jesse plays pinball; they drink beer and talk about old loves.

  • Donaukanal at the Schützenhaus

    Obere Donaustraße 26, 1020 Vienna

    • The poet

      By the canal, a poet offers to write them a poem.

  • Palais Schwarzenberg gardens

    Prinz-Eugen-Straße 5, 1030 Vienna

    • The small hours

      With a bottle of wine they have made off with, they see the morning in a private palace garden.

  • Albertina terrace

    Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna

    • Morning

      Céline lies in Jesse’s lap under the statue; then they say goodbye.

  • Shakespeare and Company

    37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris

    • The book signing

      Nine years later, Jesse signs his first novel at Shakespeare & Company.

  • Le Pure Café

    14 rue Jean-Macé, 75011 Paris

    • A coffee

      With an hour or so to spare before his plane, they go for coffee.

  • Coulée verte René-Dumont

    Promenade Plantée, 75012 Paris

    • The raised garden

      They walk the old railway viaduct garden.

  • Quai de la Tournelle

    Quai de la Tournelle, 75005 Paris

    • The boat

      They take a boat ride along the Seine.

  • Céline’s courtyard

    Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, 75011 Paris

    • Her apartment

      Céline’s apartment, where the film ends.

  • The Leigh Fermor House

    Kalamitsi, Kardamyli, Messenia

    • The retreat

      Nine years on again, the couple’s writing retreat is Patrick Leigh Fermor’s house at Kardamyli.

  • Kardamyli

    Messenian Mani, Peloponnese

    • The village

      Kardamyli is among the film’s places in Messenia.

  • Methoni Castle

    Methoni, on the west coast of Messenia

    • Young lovers in the ruins

      They act like young lovers among the ruins of Methoni Castle.

Continue through the series.

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