Location Detective: Tracking Down Vienna’s Elusive Pension Kleist

Sometimes the places you seek are not where you think they are

A Brief Scene in The Day of the Jackal

We are not a police force, and we certainly aren’t authorised to investigate coups, conspiracies, or any of the clandestine activities that secret services handle. But we are Location Detectives — and our curiosity is what drives us. When a film shows a memorable scene, we want to know exactly where it was shot. Many film lovers remember these moments vividly, yet have no idea where the camera actually stood.

Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal was adapted for the screen in 1973. One of its most important early scenes takes place in a quiet Viennese pension called Kleist, where the OAS conspirators meet “their man,” the professional assassin who will later be known simply as the Jackal.

In both the novel and Fred Zinnemann’s film, this scene sets the tone for everything that follows. It explains the conspirators’ motives and frames the Jackal’s mission. The moment is brief, but it is pivotal — and for us, that makes it irresistible. Where exactly was this filmed? The story places the conspirators in Vienna. But does that mean the production filmed the scene there? Not necessarily. A short sequence of a man crossing a street and entering a European-style building could easily be shot in a studio.

So where was Pension Kleist?

Looking for the Conspirators’ Hiding Place

The Jackal’s story spans five countries: France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, and Austria. Filming every scene on location would have been expensive. A reasonable assumption is that the production built a small set somewhere in France or England for the Pension Kleist sequence.

But assumptions are not evidence — and we wouldn’t be Location Detectives if we stopped there.

After digging through various sources, we found a claim that the scene was filmed “in Vienna’s Prater Park.” Promising, but not definitive. Time to investigate.

Where is the Kleist Building?

Identifying Prater Park as the general area was a small victory — but far too small. We examined countless images of the park and found nothing resembling the old European façade seen in the film. The Jackal crosses a narrow street and enters a decorated entrance. Prater Park, however, is mostly open space, amusement rides, cafés, and pavilions. No multi‑storey classical buildings.

This raised a new possibility: perhaps the “Prater Park” claim was unreliable. So, what does a Location Detective do next?

Attention to Detail

Buildings change over decades. Walls are resurfaced, fences repainted, structures demolished or renovated. But some details endure — and those details are our clues.

In the short scene, we noted:

• façades on both sides of the street

• window and door shapes

• decorative elements

• and one crucial background object: a Ferris wheel

If the wheel was real and still standing, we had something solid to work with.

The Ferris wheel was easy to identify: Vienna’s famous Wiener Riesenrad, the Giant Ferris Wheel of Prater Park. It appears clearly behind the Jackal as he crosses the street. Excellent — a fixed landmark.

Or so we thought.

Nothing Near the Wheel!

In the film, the Ferris wheel appears almost like a giant clock face behind the Jackal. This orientation suggested that the filming location should be either east or west of the wheel’s axis — not along its plane.

The Riesenrad is oriented roughly north–south. So, we searched both sides.

And found… nothing.

No façades resembling Pension Kleist. No narrow street. No decorated entrance. Just parkland and amusement structures. As you move outward toward Vienna’s streets, the wheel appears much smaller and farther away than in the film.

This raised a new question: Did the production build a temporary façade in Prater Park that was later removed? Or did they recreate the Ferris wheel in a studio?

Time to keep digging.

The Optics Can Be Deceiving

Most people trust what they see. If an object looks close, it must be close. But cinematography plays by different rules.

A long‑focus lens can dramatically compress distance, making background objects appear much larger and closer than they are. A wide‑angle lens does the opposite. Google Street View uses wide‑angle cameras, which distort distance in yet another way.

So, the Ferris wheel’s apparent proximity in the film might be an illusion.

With this in mind, we expanded our search beyond the immediate edges of Prater Park, still keeping the wheel’s orientation in mind.

And then — finally — a breakthrough.

Novaragasse: The Real Pension Kleist

There it was: a small Viennese street called Novaragasse.

The façade matched. The windows matched. The entrance — remarkably — still featured the same door design seen in the film.

And yes, the Ferris wheel is visible from the street. But in real life, it appears much smaller and farther away than in the film’s frame. The long-focus lens used during filming “pulled” the wheel forward, making it loom dramatically behind the Jackal.

Mystery solved.

The Trick’s In The Lens!

The difference between the film’s view and reality comes down to optics. Long-focus lenses compress distance, making background objects appear closer and larger. Wide-angle lenses expand distance, making backgrounds appear smaller and farther away.

So, the Ferris wheel’s imposing presence in the film is a cinematic illusion — not a geographical one.

This is a good reminder for any Location Detective: Objects in films rarely appear exactly as they do in real life. Distances are compressed, angles are altered, and backgrounds are manipulated to serve the story.

A Location Worth Visiting

Novaragasse — the real filming location of Pension Kleist — is now part of our pre‑planned, self‑guided film tour “The Day of the Jackal.” If you’d like to explore this and many other filming locations across Europe, you’ll find the tour among the A‑Z LiteraTours offerings.

All you need to do is press the button below.