Vienna’s best courtyards

There are countless beautiful courtyards hidden away behind many of the opulent facades of Vienna’s town houses and palaces.

  

Walk in, take a deep breath and enter an oasis of calm hidden just behind the entrance to a building on a busy street. Numerous old Viennese courtyards have now been painstakingly restored and remodeled. Vienna is famous for its Pawlatsche access balconies which provide access to the various apartments from the courtyard. Sometimes, two or more adjacent courtyards create a practical shortcut between two parallel streets which is accessible from each end.

Vienna's first district is home to some of the city's most attractive courtyards. Just behind St. Stephen's Cathedral, the buildings around Blutgasse (Singerstrasse, Grünangergasse, Domgasse) are among the oldest in the capital. The entrance to Blutgasse 3 conceals a remarkable 17th century building with open access balconies. Meanwhile nearby Singerstrasse boasts several interesting courtyards. The Deutschordenshaus Singerstrasse 7) has two courtyards and facades in the 17th century style.

A magnificent horse chestnut tree stands in the quiet courtyard of Singerstrasse 11, and the baroque Palais Neupauer-Breuner (Singerstrasse 16) also has an attractive courtyard with open access balconies. The pretty courtyard at Weihburggasse 16 is home to the Vermischte Warenhandlung shop with an adorable collection of original gift ideas and souvenirs.

Still in the 1st district, Viennese actor, dramatist and satirist Johann Nepomuk Nestroy was born at Bräunerstrasse 3. Wrought iron bars, wall fountains and hanging baskets adorn the elegant courtyard with its striking elevated balcony walkways. The 16th century renaissance Arkadenhof is a residential building to behold (Bäckerstrasse 7) - its wrought ironwork is from the collection of Biedermeier painter Friedrich Amerling. A stone's throw away, the generously proportioned Heiligenkreuzerhof joins Schönlaterngasse and Grashofgasse.

Beautiful courtyards are not the exclusive preserve of the 1st district. Elsewhere, the Raimundhof (Mariahilfer Strasse 45, 6th district), an arcade consisting of several adjoining courtyards, joins the Mariahilfer Strasse shopping street and Windmühlgasse. The passageway is lined with bijoux boutiques, bars and restaurants. In the 7th district three courtyards combine to form a passageway that links Neustiftgasse 16 and Lerchenfelderstrasse 13. The arcade has something of a Mediterranean feel with its sidewalk cafés. Things are a little quieter at the Adlerhof (constructed 1874). This restored passageway has five terraced courtyards giving access to ten buildings from Siebensterngasse 46 to Burggasse 51. 

  

Vienna. Main Public Library

One of the most fascinating facets of the Main Library of the City Libraries is the view through its vast glass facades: Kahlenberg, Leopoldsberg and large parts of the Vienna Woods seem close enough to touch. Spacious library rooms with Internet and audio stations, reading nooks and a café are conducive to reading and reflecting.

  

Directly above the underground station Burggasse-Stadthalle one finds the new library, opened in 2003 and created by architect Ernst Mayr whose design won a competition held by the European Union. A supporting structure spanning three stories makes the building look as if it were suspended above the tracks of the old Otto Wagner station pavilions. It is located directly between the two lanes of the Vienna “Gürtel," one of the busiest roads of the city.

The generous open staircase of the library connects to the roof of Urban-Loritz square, which was renovated a few years ago – it conveys a cosmopolitan feeling and signals free access to the knowledge stored in the library. The cafés in the glass rotunda represent casual and communicative urbanity. The library, 150 meters long and 26 meters wide, offers a usable area of 6,000 square meters and provides access to 240,000 pieces of print media (books, scores, trade journals) as well as to 60,000 electronic media items (CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs and videos).

Vienna. Architecture and design. Social housing and the Werkbund Estate.

In the 1920s, the city of Vienna began to build social housing for the countless workers who came to Vienna from elsewhere in the Empire. Today, the architectural image of Vienna is impossible to imagine without these buildings, some of which are truly gigantic.

  

The Social Democratic government of the First Republic (1918-1934) wanted to improve workers' quality of life. The plan was to erect large housing complexes that were affordable and offered their residents good living conditions. The social housing functioned as a city within a city and was usually built as perimeter block developments: a large gateway led into the often landscaped interior courtyard, from which the individual stairways and apartments were accessed. Amenities such as swimming pools, supermarkets, laundromats, and kindergartens were frequently situated in the common buildings. The first housing estate to be built in Vienna was the Metzleinstalerhof in the 5th district.

Many of the architects were students of Art Nouveau icon Otto Wagner at the Academy of Fine Arts. They included Karl Ehn, who planned the famous Karl-Marx-Hof in the 19th district of Vienna. Together with the Sandleitenhof with 1,531 apartments in the 16th district, he is the poster child of "red housing" in the period between the wars. In the Karl-Marx-Hof, which accommodates 1,272 apartments on a total of 156,000 square meters, there is a museum in the laundromat which explains the communal housing of this era. 61,175 apartments in 348 housing blocks and 5,227 apartments in 42 terraced house developments were built between 1923 and 1934. 400 architecture offices participated in the construction. Interrupted by the Second World War, the city of Vienna took up its social construction projects again in 1947, and has continued these - adapted architecturally to the era in question - until the present.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the so-called Werkbund estates were built. The underlying idea was that of a new estate movement. The aim was to achieve economy in the smallest space and functional solutions. The model houses were supposed to be affordable, able to be built in series, and with flat roofs. The Vienna Werkbund Estate in the 13th district had a total of 76 buildings and was built between 1929 and 1932 under the direction of Josef Frank. Prominent architects included Josef Hoffmann, Clemens Holzmeister and Adolf Loos. However, the Werkbund Estate did not succeed - although today it is one of the most significant examples of modern architecture in Austria. Starting in 1933, Austrian fascism left little space for socio-political experiments, which ended completely with the annexation of Austria to Hitler's Germany in 1938.

The Nazi era hardly left any architectural traces in Vienna, aside from the six flak towers that are visible today - like warnings - on the skyline. Since the 1960s, countless outstanding examples of modern architecture have been built in Vienna.

Vienna. Historic bridges and fountains

You can walk over 1,716 bridges … at least you can in Vienna. Vienna actually has four times as many bridges as Venice. Just as interesting in terms of their architecture are the many historic fountains that dot Vienna’s streets and make it one of the most livable cities in the world. Ultimately, Vienna’s spring water flows from the drinking fountains!

  

The Vermählungsbrunnen fountain (1729) in the Hoher Markt is one of the most important Viennese fountain monuments of the Baroque period. The present-day stone and bronze version stands in place of a wooden monument that Emperor Leopold I. had built when his son Joseph returned from the war unharmed. The Donnerbrunnen fountain (1739) in the Neuer Markt also has an interesting history: the naked figures (allegories of the Danube's tributaries) were removed soon after Empress Maria Theresia established the Chastity Commission. Today, they are to be found in the Baroque Museum in the Lower Belvedere. The Donnerbrunnen fountain cannot be viewed until 2022 due to alterations. The Pallas-Athene Fountain (1902) in front of the Parliament building on the Ring shows river gods that embody the Danube, Inn, Elbe and Moldau. The Andromeda Fountain in the Old City Hall, the Austria Fountain on the Freyung and the Memorial Fountain to Empress Sisi in the Volksgarten are also worth a visit.

The nearly1.000 drinking fountains and 55 monumental and memorial fountains are all situated on central squares and are ideal quiet points to take a pause.

As a city on the Danube, Vienna also has many bridges to offer: ten over the Danube, 32 over the Danube Canal, 40 over the Wien River, 271 U-Bahn bridges and many more. The U-Bahn developed from the metropolitan railway designed by Otto Wagner, which required the construction of several bridges. These constructions may have been built for purely technical reasons, but were designed down to the smallest detail and are therefore definitely worth seeing. They mark the cityscape of Vienna to this day. Small but mighty is the Konstantinsteg in the Vienna Prater, which was opened in 1873 and is therefore - concerning the original construction - the oldest bridge in Vienna.

  

Vienna's Ringstrasse

Vienna's Ringstrasse is 5.3 kilometers long. Long enough to provide space for numerous monumental buildings, which were built during the period of Historicism in the 1860s to 1890s. Today, the buildings that stand there – from the Vienna State Opera to the Museum of Fine Arts – are among the most important sights in the city of Vienna.

  

"It is my will..." - with these words, Emperor Franz Joseph ordered the building of the Ringstrasse in 1857. Nobles and rich citizens hurried to build pompous palaces along this magnificent boulevard. Many of these former private homes can still be admired today (mostly, however, only from the outside). The style in which the buildings were built went down in history as the Ringstrasse style (a type of Historicism). It is marked by a pluralism of styles: numerous architectural forms of previous epochs were imitated.

The most noteworthy buildings are not the palaces, but rather the large buildings such as the State Opera (built in the style of the Neo-Renaissance), the Parliament, City Hall (Flemish Gothic), the Burgtheater (New Baroque), the university (Neo-Renaissance), the Museum for Applied Art, the Vienna Stock Exchange, and the Votive Church (New Gothic), which were all constructed in the second half of the 19th century. Especially worth seeing are also the Museum of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum, both of which were built in the Neo-Renaissance style. They not only hold awesome art and natural treasures, but are also architectural masterpieces.

Master builders such as Theophil von Hansen, Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer, Gottfried Semper, Heinrich von Ferstel, and Friedrich von Schmidt shaped the image of the Ringstrasse. At the end of the 19th century, following the time of the Ringstrasse architecture, came Viennese Art Nouveau, which turned away from the ostentatious pomp and splendor.

  

  

Vienna. Buildings by Nobel Prize winners

Vienna’s architecture scene is thriving. The former imperial city contains top-class buildings by well-known architects. The annual Pritzker Architecture Prize is the architectural equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Previous winners Hans Hollein, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel have all created architectural landmarks in Vienna: From the Gasometer to the Haas House and the WU Campus.

  

Who does not recognize St. Stephan’s Cathedral as the symbol of Vienna? Since 1990 its image has been reflected across the square in the glass façade of the Hans Hollein-designed Haas Haus. Hollein became the first Austrian to win the Pritzker in 1985, the world’s most prestigious architecture prize. The prize was first awarded in 1979 by American hoteliers Jay and Cindy Pritzker, owners of the Hyatt chain. The annual award comes with a cash prize of USD 100,000 and is comparable to a Nobel Prize. Previous winners include Philipp Johnson, Richard Meier, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas.

Hollein’s Haas Haus is just one of the many spectacular structures that gives Vienna a modern image, despite the ever-present baroque splendour. This pioneer of post-modernism has created commercial spaces for clients including Schullin Jewelers (1984). He also worked on the ramp at the Albertina (2003) and the renovations of the Hilton Hotel (2002). Hollein has also designed several office towers in and around Vienna, including the Mediatower (2001) on the Danube canal and the towers for construction firm PORR on the Laaer Berg (2003).

In 1991 Swiss architectural duo Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron completed a housing estate on Pilotengasse in the Vienna suburbs. Over 200 single-family homes were constructed on stilts with earth-tone paints used on the exteriors to reinforce a direct relationship between the structures and the terrain. In 2001 Herzog and de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize in recognition of their work. Iraq-born architect Zaha Hadid designed an apartment house elevated on stilts in Spittelauer Lände that straddles Otto Wagner’s historic commuter train arches. The project was completed in 2005. Her spectacular library building on the new campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration was opened in 2013.

The most recent winner of the Pritzker Prize is the French architectural star Jean Nouvel. He was awarded the 2008 prize for his life’s work. Nouvel created a distinctive apartment complex in Vienna’s 21st district in 1998. Each building has an E-shaped floor plan and exudes Mediterranean charm. His most outstanding project, however, is one of the four former gas towers in Simmering—a distinctive example of industrial architecture in this new district that started to spring up in 2001. Rather than completely rebuilding the interior of Gasometer A, Nouvel instead elected to construct living spaces in the towers that is molded to fit the inside of the curved exterior walls. The glass roof and use of materials such as glass and steel create a sense of airiness. The Hotel Hotel SO/ Vienna on the Danube Canal, which opened at the end of 2010, is Jean Nouvel's latest masterpiece in Vienna. The interesting multi-story building, also called Nouvel Tower, presents a different structure from every angle.

Vienna. Art Nouveau and Modernity

In addition to the familiar Gothic and Baroque buildings, Art Nouveau has a fixed place in Viennese architecture. At the turn of the 20th century, prominent architects such as Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, and Joseph Maria Olbrich erected world-renowned buildings such as the Secession, the Postal Savings Bank, and the Loos House.

  

Vienna was one of the birthplaces of modernity at the beginning of the last century. In architecture too, master builders blazed new trails. Above all, it was Otto Wagner who shaped Vienna's skyline as we know it today. He preferred a geometric variant of Art Nouveau. His buildings are clear and usually symmetrically-arranged - matter-of-fact and down-to-earth. The most important Wagner buildings in Vienna are the stations, premises and bridges of the former Stadtbahn (today U4 and U6), the Majolika House and Muse House on Wienzeile, the Church on Steinhof and the Postal Savings Bank. The noteworthy component of Art Nouveau architecture were the ornaments. These were used especially for the exterior design. Marble, glass, tiles, metal applications, colorful pieces, and gilding ennobled the houses.

Floral ornaments are on one of the most important Art Nouveau buildings, the Vienna Secession. Built by Joseph Maria Olbrich in 1898, it was the first exhibition building in Central Europe to be dedicated to modern art. Another important representative of Viennese Art Nouveau was Josef Hoffmann. His villas in the 19th district still give an impression of the style that dominated at that time.

Adolf Loos and his Loos House

Adolf Loos spoke out against any decoration of buildings; his purely functional architecture thus distanced him clearly from the Art Nouveau style. The Loos House on Michaelerplatz is the best evidence of his work: instead of ornaments, high-quality materials were used both inside and out. The "house without eyebrows" (because the small roofs over the windows that were common at the time were lacking here) was a shock for citizens of Vienna who were used to Historicism and for Kaiser Franz Joseph, who could see the house from the Imperial Palace and loathed it.

The First World War and the collapse of the monarchy in 1918 brought about the end of Viennese Art Nouveau. The social housing of "Red Vienna" shaped the Viennese architecture of the period between the wars.

  

Vienna. Architecture and design. New campus of the University of Economics and Business

Vienna’s architecture is booming: Dominique Perrault built the imposing DC Tower, Austria’s tallest building, Jean Nouvel constructed a modern hotel by the Danube Canal, and Coop Himmelb(l)au's angled residential tower nestles against the old gasometers. One of Europe's most modern railway stations has also been created with the new Vienna Main Station.

   

New campus of the University of Economics and Business

Internationally recognized architects designed the new campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Vienna therefore not only has a new university, but also a new destination for people with an interest in architecture.

There's space here for 25,000 students and 1,500 employees, the building cost EUR 492 million and took 41 months to complete: the new campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business is the new architectural landmark next to the Prater. The building was designed by world-renowned architecture offices:

• Zaha Hadid Architecture from Hamburg was responsible for the "Library & Learning Center".
• CRABstudio from London was in charge of faculty building D3 and the administrative building.
• The studio of Hitoshi Abe from Sendai, Japan, designed faculty building D2 and the "Student Center".
• Estudio Carme Pinós S.L. from Barcelona provided the design for faculty building D4.
• NO.MAD Arquitectos from Madrid constructed the "Executive Academy".
• BUSarchitektur ZT Gmbh from Vienna was responsible for faculty building D1 and the "Student Center".

Above all, Zaha Hadid's imposing library building stands out on the new campus. The rest of the buildings are grouped around it. The futuristic architecture is a real head-turner. However, its interior purpose – it is a university campus, after all - is a given.

The entire area is the bigger than the size of twelve football pitches: 35,000 m² were built on, 55,000 m² are available as publicly accessible open space. The entire campus was built on the basis of a "Green Building" concept: building envelopes and facilities were planned to be as energy-efficient as possible.