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. 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.