Lyubov Dzhurinskaya — Your Personal Guide in Vienna: Art Historian, Fashion Designer, and Connoisseur of the Austrian Soul

What I Keep Quiet About in Everyday Life — But Happily Share on a Tour

My name is Lyubov. I think I’m the only guide in Vienna who feels equally confident discussing why the Freemasons chose that particular symbol for the facade of an ordinary house, and the cut of an 18th-century dress; about Freudian psychology and the messages of Viennese Modernism; about Baroque and Historicism; about history and art.

In a past life (read: in my youth), I spent five years studying to be a fashion designer. I thought I would sew clothes. In the end, I sew tours in Vienna. Later, I got a second degree — in art history. I studied at the Faculty of Art History at the University of Vienna, as well as at the Austrian Institute for Economic Promotion (WIFI). And only in Vienna did I realize: these two sides of me finally became friends.

Over 20 Years in Vienna — And I’m Still Not Tired

I know which coffeehouse still serves strudel using a recipe from 1910 (and yes, there’s still a line of locals, not tourists). I know where the magnolia blooms when everyone thinks Vienna is only about cathedrals. And which heurigers composer Beethoven sipped wine at, which cabarets artists Klimt and Schiele stayed late in, and which brothel Emperor Franz Joseph used to visit.

And I have a firm conviction: art and history are not boring. They are about us, about desires, about money, about power. It’s just that usually people talk about them in a way that makes you want to yawn. I will speak differently.

Why You Should Go With Me, Even If You Don’t Like Tours

I am not a lecturer, but rather a popularizer and an enlightener. I know how to laugh at myself and at stereotypes. My author tours in Vienna are not a monologue. They are a dialogue, in which together we search for traces of Freemasons on old walls, argue about what Schiele meant, and decide whether Sisi was really as perfect as they paint her.

Do you want intellectual Vienna tours with a spark? Come along. We’ll feel, laugh, and be surprised.