Connecting Heldenplatz with Burgtheater, facing the Parliament, the Rathauspark and the Natural History Museum on the one side and Ballhausplatz on the other, this first-district park will unavoidably lie on your sightseeing-track. Tourists that want to see it all can continue their attentive stroll in the neat Volksgarten, watching out for the Theseus temple, the monument for Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (well-known as “Sissi”) and for the playwright Franz Grillparzer, the Volksgartenpavillon (café and club) and its fountain and rosegarden. On warm and sunny days they might otherwise join the more laid-back people (not least students from the nearby University) chatting, reading, sunbathing on the lawn (as long as the city won’t introduce the Victorian “Keep off the grass!” again). The well-attended garden along the Ringstraße, constructed over the former city fortifications destroyed by Napoleon’s troops, opened its doors to the public in 1820.