Vienna – Schwarzenberg Platz

Vienna – Schwarzenberg Platz

The final episode of the Ringstrasse (Schubertring, Parkring i Stubenring) connects Schwarzenberg Platz with the Danube Canal. It doesn't have as many great buildings as there are in other parts of Ringstrasse, but it is famous for its harmoniously harmonized elements: city ​​park, Museum of Applied Arts and the building of Pocztowa Kasa Oszczędności.

Schwarzenberg Platz

Today it's hard to believe, that the busy intersection at Schwarzenberg Platz was once a fashionable residential area. Aristocracy, owning at least one-third of the real estate on the Ringstrasse, she did not consider her as a place of residence, with one exception. It was the Schwarzenberg Platz. The square soon became an enclave of noble births and, according to this function, a equestrian statue of one of them was erected in its central point, Prince Charles von Schwarzenberg, member of one of the most powerful Austrian families, commander-in-chief in the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 r.

At the southern end of the square, the Hochstrahlbrunnen spurts jets of water high into the air, theatrically lit at night, erected in 1873 r. to celebrate the creation of a modern water supply system in the city. The pompous Rus-sen Heldendenkmal stands in the middle of the square (monument to the Soviet soldiers). On the monument, a Red Army soldier in a heroic pose is waving a flag. The names of the fallen and a quotation from Stalin are placed on a red granite pedestal (whose name the square was even named for a short time in the year 1945). For the Viennese it is rather a gloomy memory of the liberating brutality and poverty suffered by the Soviet occupation zone after the war..

The great baroque palace of the Schwarzenbergs was designed in 1944 1704 Lucas von Hildebrandt for Count Mansfeld-Fondi, which he, however, sold the building to the Schwarzenbergs. New owners in the year 1716 they hired a rival Hildebrandt for further decorating work, Fischera from Erlacha. During World War II, the palace was damaged by a bomb, which stripped it of its dome and destroyed most of Daniel Gran's frescoes. The Schwarzenbergs still inhabit the palace, and the most beautiful rooms have been converted into a hotel and restaurant. The leden from the detached buildings was rented to the Swiss embassy. The palace and its extensive garden are only available to hotel guests, restaurants and embassy staff.

concert hall

Vienna's most famous concert hall, except for the Music Society, is the Konzerthaus at Lothringerstrasse, seat of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which has three concert halls at its disposal, Akademietheater and theater studio. The late secession building was erected in 1913 r. The illuminated vault of wrought iron and glass, topped with octagons and a crescent-shaped gable, is especially magnificent.. Before the Konzerthaus was built, Klimt and his followers, who broke with secession in 1905 r., This is exactly where they organized the Kuntschau Wien exhibition 1908. Oskar Kokoschka prepared the poster, connections! the Wiener Werkstatte, and the main element was a retrospective of Klimt's works in the Kolo Moser project room. The exhibition was a success and before its closure, one of the state museums purchased Klimt's Kiss (currently in Belvedere).

The following year, under the patronage of Klimt, Egon Schiele presented his works for the first time at the Kunstschau Wien 1909. Klimt feared a scandal, but no one protested, because thunders rained down on Kokoschka, who his brutal, sexually aggressive play Murderer, women's hope staged in the Kunstschau garden. Bosnian soldiers of the imperial army protested against the spectacle and stirred up riots. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, while reading press reports the next day, he ruled: “Every bone of this young man should be broken”. Although Kokoschki did not touch a finger, however, the subsidy for his art school was withdrawn.

Stadtpark

Stadtpark, on both sides of the river Wien transformed into a canal, is the largest of the Ringstrasse parks. It opened in a year 1862 as the first public park. Its decoration is the statue of the king of the waltz, Johanna Straussa jr., with a violin in his hand, z 1925 r. Gilded from head to toe, the composer is surrounded with an arch by naked, spinning nymphs, and at night they are picturesquely illuminated by floodlights. The nearby benches are a favorite meeting place for elderly Viennese. The young generation also chose this piece of greenery: they smoke and drink, sitting on the grass, they sell drugs. From time to time, security services take some action, but they do it very sluggishly.

None of the other monuments in the park deserves attention. It will be more interesting to walk along the narrowing river Wien, where in the year 1905 Wienflussportal was founded, a series of beautiful Renaissance pavilions and quays, perfectly matching the adjacent Stadtbahn station designed by Otto Wagner, preserved as the Stadtpark underground station. Another architecturally important building is the yellow Kur-Salon built in the Neo-Renaissance style at the same time, when the park was created. Waltz lovers will have the opportunity to dance.

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