Pollak depicts the Mödling city center in winter, with the aqueduct of First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline (constucted in 1873) and the top of St. Othmar church, built in the mid 15th century. The viewer is located on a hill, peering under a tree branch at the city below.
Mödling lies in Lower Austria's industrial zone. The Mödlingbach, a brook which rises in the Vienna Woods, flows through the town. Near Achau it joins with the Schwechat. Woodland occupies a large part of the municipality, part of the Föhrenberge ('Pine Mountains').
From 1883 to 1932, Mödling was the starting point of the Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram, Austria's first electric railway and world's first long-lasting tram with overhead lines. In 1938, after the Anschluss with Nazi Germany, Mödling was incorporated into the newly formed 24th District of Vienna. In 1954, it became once again a part of Lower Austria.