Schlagwort: 1130wien

The 113m long and up to 28m high Palm House in Schönbrunn Palace Park was first built in 1880-1882 according to plans by Arch. Xaver Segenschmid by the “k. und k. Hofschlosser und Eisenconstructeur” Ignaz Gridl and is one of the largest plant houses of its kind in the world.

State-of-the-art technology was built into the iron construction, which was extremely expensive even for the time, including a steam water heating system to create different climate zones for the Habsburg collection of exotic plants. There was also criticism of the use of marines to fix (and later clean) the 45,000 or so panes of glass with window putty. After massive damage during the Second World War and only gradual repairs, an almost 14-year renovation was later necessary, which was then completed in 1990.

Particularly noteworthy plants include a 350-year-old olive tree, a specimen of a Wollemia, a plant species that was only discovered in 1994, a home-grown Seychelles palm and the azalea collection. The former central “Maria Theresa Palm” and the subsequent “Sisi Palm” each had to be cut down as they threatened to burst through the roof.

The Hermesvilla in the Lainzer Tiergarten in the 13th district was designed by the Ringstrasse architect Carl von Hasenauer in 1886 and was a gift from Emperor Franz Josef I to his wife, Empress Elisabeth. The palace was named after the statue “Hermes the Guardian”, commissioned by Elisabeth from the Berlin sculptor Ernst Herter, which is now located in the garden on the south side of the villa and is probably a reference to the empress’s love of travel as the patron god of travelers.

It is said that Franz Josef hoped to keep Sisi in Vienna for longer, but this was thwarted by her assassination around three years later. As well as providing an important impetus for the development of the hunting and nature conservation area and being one of the first buildings in Vienna with an electricity connection, the furnishings and paintings by Hans Markart, Gustav Klimt and Viktor Tilgner inside the country house are particularly noteworthy.

Now run by the Wien Museum, visitors can not only view the private apartments of the imperial couple, including the famous bedroom with its unique mix of historicism, Markart style and Secessionism, but also discover a range of private objects, regular special exhibitions and, of course, the magnificent surroundings.

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

Today a posting in my own business: from now on I offer again the popular Advent tours to Schönbrunn Palace followed by a short visit to the palace gardens and the most beautiful Christmas market in Vienna.

More details and the possibility to register can be found on www.michaelsrootsinvienna.at