Autor: Michael Würzelberger

In the center of the Volksgarten on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, the Swiss-Austrian court architect Peter von Nobile built the approximately 14x25m large classical Theseus Temple in 1823. The crypt of the building, which was planned in the type of a ring hall temple (peripteros) with 6×10 columns, was to serve as a place for the sculptures of the imperial collection of antiquities, especially for the Theseus group designed by Antonio Canova.

Due to the construction on the area of the former moat, the foundations of the catacombs had to reach deep down, but soon proved to be too wet, so that the sculptures were later taken away. Today, the Theseus figure is located in the intermediate landing of the main staircase in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

After extensive renovation in the 2000s, the temple now serves as an exhibition space and can also be accessed barrier-free. The bronze figure of a youthful athlete by Josef Müllner placed in front of it was ceremoniously unveiled in 1923 and was considered a sign of life for Austrian sports.

The winged Lion of Saint Mark, based on a Venetian model, was first erected in 1869 in the magnificent South Station by Wilhelm Flattich together with 7 other lions on the edge of the roof. Since 2014, it can now also be seen again in the central station in restored condition as a landmark at the main entrance.

The figures, made by sculptor Franz Melnitzky, were probably an allusion to Austria’s claim to Venice, which had fallen to Austria at the Congress of Vienna as the „Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom“, but then had to be ceded again in the course of the Italian unification movement in 1866. During WWII, the South and East Stations were then severely damaged, six of the eight Lions of Saint Mark were destroyed. In the new building of the now structurally merged stations, completed in 1960, one of the Lion of Saint Mark was again presented in the lower ticket hall as a reminiscence of the times when Austria still extended to the Adriatic. The second undestroyed Lion of Saint Mark can be found today near the former Kaiserbahnhof in Laxenburg.

On Stock-im-Eisen-Platz, directly next to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, there is today the house „Zum goldenen Becher“ from 1883, built according to the plans of the Austrian Arch. Alexander Wielemans of Monteforte in the late historicist style. Wielemans was also responsible for the Palace of Justice in Vienna and the City Hall in Graz.

The name of the residential and commercial building in old German forms derives from a house sign of the previous building, a wrought iron grille with a cup, located above the front gate. The background for this was possibly the Corpus Christi procession in 1549, during which a Protestant baker’s boy named Johann Hayn is said to have snatched the monstrance from the priest and was then burned as punishment. The reigning king and later emperor Ferdinand I would have had a column with a monstrance erected at the site.

Despite damages during WWII, rich facade paintings with allegorical figures, portraits of emperors and verses on the history of the house and the city can still be seen between the round-arched windows, an embellished floor with a lattice balcony on consoles and partly also Ionic red marble columns.

The listed Hotel Daniel on Gürtelstraße in the 3rd district near the Belvedere from 1962 was originally built as an office building for the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La-Roche and designed by the Austrian/Swiss architect duo Georg Lippert and Roland Rohn.

In the course of the takeover by the hotel operator and the renovation of the building with the curtain-wall style used for the first time in Austria to create the striking green glass facade in 2011, a work of art by the successful Austrian artist Erwin Wurm in the form of a curved sailboat called „Misconceivable“ was also installed on the roof.

The installation of the stranded airship, originally planned for only 4 years, perhaps also references Vienna’s location by the sea until a few million years ago.

One of the showpieces of the excellent Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer in the Hofburg is undoubtedly the so-called „Adlergarnitur“ from 1547, which the later Emperor Ferdinand I had made for his son, Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol. The name derives from the gilded eagles decorated on the surface, the heraldic animals of old Austria.

The knightly luxury armor, which was usually worn for representation purposes at tournaments, consists of 87 individual parts that can be combined as a modular system to 12 different armors for different occasions (on horseback, on foot, for field, tournament, foot combat, etc..). The „sporting equipment“, elegant due to its excellent execution and decoration, was created by the Innsbruck plater Jörg Seusenhofer.

To produce it, iron was fire-gilded, framed in black, engraved and rivet heads were made of brass. The considerable cost was equivalent to 12 years‘ salary of a high court official. The field armor is the largest preserved of its kind and, through illustration in the inventory of Archduke Ferdinand II, also the best documented.

The Austrian architect and well-known draftsman „Ironimus“ Gustav Peichl is responsible for the planning of the 96m high trade fair tower in Leopoldstadt, which was erected in 2003. The trademark of Messe Wien is also considered a reminiscence of the Mannesmann Tower*, which was located there until 1987 and was a gift from the Düsseldorf company of the same name.

Built on parts of the site of the 1921 World’s Fair in the Prater, the Vienna Trade Fair was intended to improve the dismal economic situation after WWI. Despite complete destruction during WWII, the annual early and autumn fairs were very soon well attended again. In the course of the division of the fairgrounds, the current exhibition and congress center was built at the beginning of the 20th century, and to the south, among others, the WU campus.

*Fig. 2: Official Gazette of the City of Vienna, Vienna Library, 1956

The Kolschitzky monument from 1885 in the 4th district by the Austrian painter and sculptor Emanuel Pendl shows Georg Franz Kolschitzky, born in (today’s) Ukraine, who played an important role as a scout during the 2nd Vienna Turkish siege of 1683.

Kolschitzky, who could speak Turkish among other languages, ventured through the enemy lines with his servant disguised as a Turk and informed the city commander Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg about the approaching rescue by the relief army under the command of the Polish King Jan III Sobieski.

This courageous act, which decisively boosted the morale of the defenders to hold out, earned him, besides the rank of imperial ambassador, among other things, some sacks of green coffee left behind by the Turks and the privilege to establish a coffee house. Whether he actually made use of this privilege is not proven, but he is still considered one of the founding fathers of Viennese coffeehouse culture and the inventor of the Viennese Melange (= espresso with milk and foamed milk topping).

The Theater Ronacher of 1872 was originally planned by Ferdinand Fellner & Sohn for the German theater director Heinrich Laube. After 20 years of successful management of the Burgtheater, Laube was rudely replaced and, together with the publisher of the „Neue Wiener Presse“ Max Friedländer, decided to build a privately financed rival theater to the Burg. This developed into a legendary duel between the houses, which was abruptly interrupted by a fire 12 years later.

The theater entrepreneur Anton Ronacher had the ruins rebuilt by the theater architects Fellner and Helmer in 1888 as the „Konzert- und Ballhaus Ronacher“. The building, which was repeatedly adapted, was used after WWII as an alternative stage for the castle, then later for TV productions and, after 10 years of vacancy, was expanded by the Vereinigen Bühnen Wien as a musical stage with more than 1,000 seats.

After a general renovation, in the 2000s there was still a controversial roof extension of the on 3 sides free-standing theater building in historicism with temple facade by Arch. Günter Domenig.

The 1940 born Austrian Pop Art painter Prof. Christian Ludwig Attersee, who was also active as an author, musician, stage designer and formerly also as a sailor, is responsible for one of the most striking facades on the largest Viennese shopping mile, the Mariahilfer Street in the district of the same name. Completed in 1996, the glass mosaic „Wetterhändler“ on the exterior of an int. textile chain is considered the largest in Europe with its 210sqm and was made by the mosaic artist Elio Macoritto.

Already early picture cycles from the 1960s called „Weather Pictures“ and „Rainbow Anomaly“, his closeness to Viennese Actionism or his „object inventions“ with fantasy names such as „Speisekugel“ or „Attersteck“ show the diversity of the multi-awarded international artist, who is also considered a co-founder of the „New Austrian Painting“.

The Emperor Franz Monument in the Burggarten in classicist forms depicts Franz I Stephen of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa and as Franz I Roman-German Emperor from 1745-1765 on horseback. Vienna’s first equestrian statue was begun by Balthasar Ferdinand Moll during the emperor’s lifetime and completed in 1781 in cast lead.

However, the court did not purchase the monument and the sculptor left it to his family. In 1797 it was placed in the Paradeisgartel on the Bastei and in 1819 it was transferred to the former „Kaisergarten“. Moll, who came from Tyrol, is still known today, especially for the production of the 20 or so magnificent coffins in the Capuchin crypt.

Franz Stephan was a financial genius; in 1763 he was entrusted with the supreme management of finances and the reorganization of the national debt. Open to all modern trends (and to women) he invested in industrial settlements and mining), he devoted himself to collecting for his natural history cabinet (which became the Natural History Museum) and to acquiring a large private fortune.