This paper presents a CityGML-based data model developed for the semantic 3D city model of Vienna, Austria. The data model consists in a profile of the CityGML 2.0 standard and has been extended by means of an Application Domain Extension (ADE) developed by the Department for Surveying and Mapping of the City of Vienna in order to comply with the current and future needs of the municipality. The definition and adoption of such data model are a fundamental part of Vienna’s “Digital geoTwin” project. The core of the strategy is to process the 3D measurement data of the surveying and mapping department from existing as well as new measurement methods directly into a Digital geoTwin—a virtual, semantic 3D replica of all objects in the city—and to derive other geodata products (city map, elevation models, etc.) from this 3D model. Furthermore, the Digital geoTwin should serve as a geometric and semantic basis for a digital twin of the City of Vienna. In order to define the data model for the Digital geoTwin, 3D modelling of all city objects has been carried out in a test area of the city, followed by a mapping of the objects to the CityGML data model. In an iterative development process, conceptual gaps have been identified, analysed and eventually formalized into a UML-based Application Domain Extension. Additionally, the free and open-source CityGML 3D City Database (3DCityDB) has been used for storage after being extended accordingly, and FME workbenches have been created to transform and import the original source data into the 3DCityDB and therefore test the suitability of the developed data model.@en