Bockshorn is the small one with the long history. On Naglergasse, Vienna's oldest street, it claims the title of the city's oldest Irish pub, a Guinness pioneer that still pulls a pint and puts the match on.
Published September 17, 2025 · By Daniel Okafor
Bockshorn Irish Pub sits at Naglergasse 7 in the Innere Stadt, tucked into Vienna's oldest street a short walk from the Graben. Local guides and the Vienna Wurstelstand pub roundup call it the city's oldest Irish pub and an early Guinness-on-tap venue, a legendary corner that locals still rate for the best pint in town. It is short on size and long on character.
Who would love it: drinkers who want a real pint, a tight room, and the match within reach. Who would skip it: anyone after space or a table for a big group, since this is one of the smallest pubs in the centre.
The room
The pub is famously small, with walls packed with pictures, posters and beer bottles, and a bar you can reach from most of the room. Screens carry live sport, so a fixture pulls the regulars in close. The scale makes a derby night raucous and a quiet afternoon snug. There is no pretension here, only decades of memorabilia and a well-kept tap.
What to order
The order is a pint of Guinness, the drink the pub built its name on, poured the way a Guinness pioneer should. Beyond the stout, the bar keeps the usual Irish-pub lineup of lagers and ales. Prices stay in the everyday mid range for the first district, which is fair given the postcode. There is no kitchen to speak of, so this is a drinking pub rather than a dinner stop, best treated as the first or last round of a night in the old town. Settle in at the bar and let the night run.
The crowd and best time to go
The crowd mixes long-time regulars, central-Vienna workers, and visitors who heard about the Guinness. Match nights and weekends fill the small room fast, so arrive early for a fixture you care about. Quieter weekday afternoons are the time for a slow pint and a look at the walls. The pub opens through the afternoon and runs late into the night, seven days a week.
The detail worth knowing
The setting is half the story. Naglergasse follows the line of the old Roman camp wall and counts as one of the oldest streets in the city, which makes the claim to be Vienna's oldest Irish pub feel of a piece with the address. The room's size is the other signature, small enough that Tripadvisor reviewers reach for the word smallest as often as oldest, and small enough that a packed match night turns into a single shared conversation. The Guinness pedigree is the through-line, since the pub was an early adopter of the stout on tap and still treats the pour as the house specialty rather than an afterthought.
Who it is for
This is for the Guinness loyalist, the football fan, and anyone working through Vienna sports bars who values history over square footage. Skip it for a large group or a seated dinner. For the wider city, see the full Vienna bar guide and our sports bars guide.
The verdict
Bockshorn wins on heritage and a properly poured pint, the oldest Irish pub in Vienna and still one of the most characterful. Come for a fixture or a quiet Guinness, claim a spot at the bar, and read the walls. For more Vienna pubs with the game on, compare the British Belushi's and the Scottish Highlander.
