By the mid 19th century, the offices in the old Vienna town hall, dedicated by the Austrian duke Frederick the Fair in 1316 and rebuilt by the Baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach around 1700, had become too small.

When the lavish Ringstraße was laid out in the 1860s, a competition to build a new city hall was initiated, won by the German architect Friedrich Schmidt.

Construction costs amounted to a total of about 14 million florins, borne by both the City of Vienna and the Imperial-Royal (k.k.)

The design of the richly adorned facade is modelled on the Gothic architecture of Flemish and Brabant secular buildings like Brussels' Town Hall.

The Vienna City Hall has the following structure from top to bottom: Atop the steeple of the 98-meter high tower, stands the 3.4-meter tall Rathausmann; an iron standard bearer.

[1] The ballroom can be found on the first floor at the front of the hall, with views of the ring road, Burgtheater, and inner city.

Recently finished renovations (2000) include the grand re-opening of the neo-Baroque Salon Ziehrer and the redesigned Lanner-Lehar Hall with wall and ceiling murals by German Trompe-l'œil artist Rainer Maria Latzke.