Schlagwort: 1190wien

The almost 62,000m2 Wertheimsteingarden in Oberdöbling in the 19th district was created as early as 1835 by the Austrian textile manufacturer, art collector and patron Rudolf von Arthaber as a private garden with a country house, the Villa Wertheimstein. After his death, Leopold von Wertheimstein acquired the park and villa in 1867, and 50 years later his daughter Franziska bequeathed the estate to the City of Vienna. In 1967, the Döbling District Museum was established in the villa and a wine museum was set up in the adjoining “Nonnenstöckl”.

A number of statues in the park still commemorate the salon as a central meeting place for liberal personalities in Vienna, which was founded by her mother Josephine. In addition to the writers Ferdinand von Saar, Franz Keim and Eduard Bauernfeld, there is also a bust of the Austrian officer and politician Julius Schlegel, the “savior of the art treasures of Montecassino” from the Nazis.

The charming park, which slopes steeply down to the former Krottenbach valley and Danube Canal valley, is home to many old and exotic plants, a garden for the blind created in 1959 (only partially preserved) and, since 1992, a biotope for lizards.

Due to the great success of the specially tanned and dyed gloves, the production of the former imperial and royal glove factory J.E. Zacharias moved in 1886 to the three-storey factory building planned by Gustav Matthies from Mecklenburg in today’s 19th district near the Danube. Due to the high demand for water, the location of the elongated brick building, with the gables typical of the planner in the early Italian Renaissance style, in Nußdorf, which was still a suburb at the time, was ideal.

With the help of ultra-modern machines powered by steam and their own dynamos, around 300 employees produced up to 10,000 gloves per week, a large proportion of which were destined for export all over the world. After the death of the factory owner in 1904, the now listed building was used as an important print shop for lithographed posters and metal sheets until 1970 and then as a second-hand goods and antiques shop.

For more than 10 years now, the building has been used as “Haus Damaris”, a Caritas facility providing refugee accommodation and basic care for around 220 people. Volunteers and donations in kind are also sought via a dedicated FB group.

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.

Near the Henikstein Villa in Obersteinergassse in Oberdöbling on the so-called Hirschenbergl, there are 2 monuments commemorating the „greatest Hungarian“ Count István Széchenyi, who died there on April 8, 1860. Széchenyi skilfully represented Hungary’s interests in the Habsburg Monarchy and, as an entrepreneur and highly influential member of the Imperial Diet, initiated a number of economic reforms.

Accordingly, his image not only adorns the 5000 forint banknote, but a number of institutions and buildings throughout Hungary also bear his name. He also contributed his collection to the National Museum in Budapest, which was founded in the 19th century as a reflection of Hungarian nationality.

The palatial country house with surrounding park, which has housed the Döbling District Court since 1991, commemorates the banker, wholesaler and music lover Adam Ritter von Henikstein, who had a private villa built there at the end of the 18th century. From 1830 a private psychiatric clinic was established there under the direction of Bruno Görgen.

The Carmelite monastery in Döbling in exposed brick construction with neo-Romanesque style forms with its neighboring Roman Catholic basilica from 1900 was designed by Viennese architect Richard Jordan, who was specialized in church buildings.

In addition to the rich picturesque decoration of the three-bayed nave and the pulpit with the Latin Fathers of the Church, the altar of grace with the oil painting „Mary with the Inclined Head“, which according to legend was discovered in 1609 near the first Carmelite monastery in a district of Rome in the rubble, is particularly noteworthy. Already since Emperor Ferdinand II. in the 17th century, the image was worshipped by the Habsburgs. During WWI it was carried in processions through Vienna to St. Stephen’s Cathedral to pray for peace.

Also worth mentioning are the Bourbons (including the French King Charles X) from the Kostanjevica Monastery, who were transferred to the Order’s crypt until 1932. In the middle of the Battle of the Isonzo in 1917, at the request of Empress Zita, wife of the last Emperor Charles I and related to the French royal family, the Bourbons were laboriously buried in the crypt.

A special history is associated with the former women’s hospice of the cooperative health insurance funds in the 19th district. Opened in 1909, it was the first hospital built by a health insurance company in Vienna and functioned as a maternity clinic for more than 65 years until it was taken over by the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences as an administrative building in the 1980s.

Originally built for workers‘ wives who had to give birth at home under often poor hygienic conditions with a high complication rate, the facility developed into a renowned maternity clinic with an outpatient clinic and later also a training center for doctors.

With a total of more than 100,000 births, this building was not only responsible for up to 25% of all babies born in Vienna at times, but also made a significant contribution to the further development of birth techniques and thus to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality.

PS: the building also the last stop of my guided tours (D/E) through the Cottage Quarter – for details and dates see my Cottage-Tour.

Tour guide in action – this time in front of the Hohe Warte stadium in Vienna Döbling. The stadium construction was preceded by the founding of the First Vienna FC on 22.8.1894 in the nearby inn „Zur schönen Aussicht“ by Nathaniel Rothschild and the general manager of the their bank. With the registration in the club register, the Vienna was the first and thus oldest soccer club in Austria. The first games took place in the former Rothschild gardens.

In 1921, the Naturarena was opened as the largest and most modern stadium on the continent with the match Vienna vs. Hakoah (2:1). Later, until the opening of the Prater Stadium in 1931, international matches were also held. Even before 1914 there were up to 10,000 spectators, after WWI soccer became a mass phenomenon. Legendary was the match Austria – Italy in 1923 with 85,000 spectators – it ended 0:0. In parallel, the stadium was also used for opera performances and boxing matches.

Between 1931-1955 Vienna was 6x Austrian soccer champion, 1931 there was also a victory in the Mitropa Cup (precursor Champions League). Hand in hand with the lack of success of Vienna from the 1960s, the stadium also fell into disrepair, after urgent renovations, it now has about 5,500 seats.

The Gregor Mendel House and main building of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), founded in 1872 in the 18th and 19th district, was then opened about 25 years later – built in the historistic neo-Renaissance style according to plans by Alois Koch. The 4 allegorical figures above the portal of the building, which was renovated in the 2010s and later connected to the Liebig wing, thematize the focus on soil culture.

The BOKU location Türkenschanze near the park of the same name today comprises a total of 10 buildings, further facilities are located in the Muthgasse, in Tulln and in various outposts in Vienna and Lower Austria and accommodate 15 so-called departments of different fields of study for about 11,000 students. The opposite Linnéplatz with its park and sculptures also commemorates historically important natural scientists.

The water reservoir iput into operation together with the 2nd Viennese high spring water pipeline in 1910. With its neo-Romanesque-secessionist architectural style it still represents an exceptional example of the transfer of representative architecture to a utility building.

With a capacity of 11,800 m3, the plant is still part of the Vienna water supply and a popular destination on the Hackenberg.