A remarkable example of the combination of industrial construction with social housing of the Belle Époque is the Jubiläumswerkstättenhof with adjoining people’s apartments in the 6th district, built in 1908/1909 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Josef I.

The aim of the project designed by the architects Otto Richter and Leopold Ramsauer was to promote small commercial enterprises with affordable workshops and apartments, i.e. work and living under one roof.

This is probably how the idea of the coworking space, which is so popular with startups and EPUs today, was founded around 110 years ago. Up to 70 companies use the 150 or so workspaces, and productive networking also increases the joint prospects for success. Today, there are more than 30 coworking spaces in Vienna in 15 different districts, most of them easily accessible near a subway station.

On the way to Kahlenberg you can discover one of the most beautiful viewpoints in Vienna at Cobenzl (Reisenberg) in the 19th district. Originally owned by the Jesuits, the mountain came in the 18th century to Johann Philipp Count Cobenzl, who, in addition to a castle-like building and gardens, also had a farm with dairy established.

At the end of the 19th century, a construction company converted the property into a hotel restaurant, and later the municipality of Vienna took over the site. The original castle hotel was devastated during WWII, then remodeled and finally demolished in 1966.

On the hill, which is easily accessible due to the construction of the Höhenstraße in the 1930s, a Rondell café and a newly built small castle were later built, but due to conflicts with the operators, the Cobenzl fell into a slumber. In the course of a new takeover and recently completed renovation, a freely accessible panorama house was also added and can now also be used again as a prestigious event location.

The Athene Fountain on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, planned by Theophil Hansen and realized in Lasa marble from South Tyrol, was not unveiled until 1902, almost 20 years after the completion of the parliament building. The originally planned representation of Austria was then erected on the Freyung for political reasons.

Beneath the powerful representation of the Greek goddess of wisdom with Nike, the goddess of victory, in her right hand, allegorical representations of the separation of powers are shown: the executive with a sword and the legislative with a book. Important rivers of the monarchy: the Inn and Danube in the center, the Elbe and Vltava on the reverse are typically depicted as reclining figures. Winged cupids riding on dolphins symbolize trade and industry.

The fountain, which was completely renovated in 2005, is considered a rare example of a monumental, Strict Historicism sculpture and was realized by the sculptors Carl Kundmann, Josef Tautenhayn and Hugo Haerdtl.

The Hofburg Chapel, as the main chapel of the Hofburg, was the house chapel of the Habsburgs until the end of the monarchy in 1918. It was built in the late Romanesque style as early as the 13th century and was rebuilt and expanded in the Gothic style in the 15th century under Emperor Frederick III. It was the responsibility of the K.u.k. Hof- und Burgpfarre, a Roman Catholic parish with special status under church law, which was responsible for the spiritual care of the imperial family and the court.

Already under Emperor Maximilian I, the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle, founded in 1498, gave concerts there. Today, it consists of the Vienna Boys‘ Choir, parts of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, parts of the Herrenchor of the Vienna State Opera and the Choralschola, a group of former Vienna Boys‘ Choir members.

The ensemble, which is today subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sports, performs not only in public concerts but also, in particular, as an accompaniment to Sunday Mass in the Hofburg Chapel (except July and August).

At the western entrance to the WU campus in Leopoldstadt, which opened in Oct. 2013, is the striking building of the Executive Academy (EA) and the WU Alumni Club by Spanish Arch. Eduardo Arroyo Muñoz (NO.MAD Arquitectos, Madrid). In the black, twisted 4-story structure with different transparent and reflective aluminum and glass surfaces, the surroundings also show.

Stacked around the central installation core are different plans per floor with soundproofing acoustic floors, the multitude of windows respond to different uses, such as learning areas, arena-style lecture halls and quiet zones.

The architect, born in 1964, with his „non-cartesian“ geometry, is responsible for the Lasesarre Stadium and Plaza Desierto in Bilbao, Casa Levene and Zafra-Uceda House in Madrid and museum extensions, among others.

On the occasion of the redesign of the staircase in front of the church Maria am Gestade in the Inner City, the Hannaken Fountain designed by Rudolf Schmidt was opened in 1937. The term Hannaken refers to an ethnic group from the Hanna region in Moravia (now the Czech Republic), who inhabited a plain between the Haná and Morava rivers and developed their own style of dress as well as a specific folk culture.

The fountain represents the legend of a „Hannakenkönig“ who lived in the adjacent inn „Zum Wolf in der Au“ and is said to have thrown a beating at the feet of passing passers-by at night in order to earn money from the treatment required afterwards. Popularly known as „Hanake“, he is said to have worked as a bather, offering all kinds of physical services such as bloodletting, dental treatment or wound care.

The scene is shown of helpers taking the wounded man – often well-heeled drunks who had just left the inn – to the place of treatment. Also the winged word „throwing a beating at the feet“ is said to have originated from this. Incidentally, the fountain is made of Lindabrunn stone, which was already popular with the Romans in Vienna.

The City Hall on Vienna’s Ringstrasse in the historicist neo-Gothic style was completed in 1883 after 11 years of construction according to the plans of Friedrich von Schmidt. The location is due to the initiative of the Viennese mayor Cajetan Felder, who rejected the originally planned building site opposite today’s Stadtpark and was finally able to convince Emperor Franz Josef I. to build on the former parade ground.

The monumental building, modeled on Flemish Gothic town halls, bears a multitude of reliefs, statues of historical figures, artists, representatives of civic professions, citizen soldiers and shield bearers with the coats of arms of the suburbs, both inside and out. The building is crowned by a 5.4 m high and 1.8 t heavy town hall man in the form of a standard bearer, which is placed on the 98 m high main tower.

The building, which was severely damaged during WWII, was then renovated until the 1970s, the last general renovation taking place in 2012-2014. In addition to the mayor, the municipal council, the city senate, the provincial government and various municipal departments, including the director of the magistrate’s office, also reside in the building.

The Jewish cemetery in the 18th district of Währing was the main burial place of the Jewish Community in Vienna from 1784 to 1879. After its closure, some people were transferred to other cemeteries, and with the Nazi invasion, more skeletons were exhumed to protect them from desecration of corpses.

Further, in 1942 a number of remaining bones were excavated for „racial surveys“ and then buried in the new Jewish section of the Central Cemetery after WWII. In spite of the fact that many graves do not contain any mortal remains today, the cemetery also shows a tour through the upper middle class of the Ringstrasse era, which has shaped Vienna until today, because of the prominent Jewish citizens.

The cemetery, which is currently open once a month and has around 8,000 remaining graves, is being renovated step by step with the help of donations, sponsors, volunteers and the City of Vienna by the association „Rettet den jüdischen Friedhof Währing“ (Save the Jewish Cemetery Währing). Two themed paths and a permanent exhibition in the Tahara House provide information about history and current developments.

The Minoritenkirche (Friars Minor Conventual Church) in downtown Vienna, remarkable in many respects, houses a replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s „The Last Supper,“ probably the world’s most famous wall fresco, made by the Roman mosaic artist Giacomo Raffaelli starting in 1805/06.

Originally commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte for the Louvre Museum, the Roman mosaic was also intended to serve as a safeguard for the original, already in poor condition, in the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan from 1497.

After the fall of Napoleon, Emperor Franz II/I originally purchased the 9.2×4.5m work for the Belvedere. Due to its size, it was installed in the Minorite Church above the Cenacolo side altar and inaugurated in 1847. The world’s largest reproduction of the 20-ton mural on twelve 24cm thick stone slabs between 2 inscriptions captivates to this day by the detailed execution and high artistic quality.

Opened in 1932, the Werkbundsiedlung in the 13th district Hietzing – consisting today of 64 small houses designed by 30 architects and female architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky – was created on the initiative of Josef Frank, based on the model of a similar settlement built a few years earlier in Stuttgart.

The direct juxtaposition of the works of important Austrian and foreign architects of the interwar period is particularly appealing. Despite the high level of visitor interest and positive media coverage, only 14 houses could be sold as planned; the rest were rented out and then turned over to the city administration during the Nazi period.

After renovations in the 1980s and 2010s, the experimental and now listed housing estate stands for undogmatic functionality and spaciousness in the smallest space of early architectural modernism.

Image 1: André Lurçat
Image 2: Josef Hoffmann – Image 3: Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky
Image 4: Oswald Haerdtl – Image 5: Gerrit Rietveld
Image 6: Adolf Loos – Image 7: Josef Frank