Sarah Hack

Sarah Hack
BOME
D Band
March 2002

Vienna's Urban Development

Vienna's urban development, not unlike that of the other great urban centers of history, can be characterized by two main incentives: (1) military/defensive and (2) economic. Throughout its history, simply the city's geographic location-at the border of Europe and Asia and on the Danube River-made it critical to both of these spheres. But unlike particularly Paris and London, Vienna developed in a static or "inside-out" fashion. The wealthy and ruling parties have always inhabited the exact same space and the city center of Vienna today is in precisely the same location as the Roman center.

Like Paris and London, Vienna originated as a Roman "castra" and dates back to the 1st century AD. It was then that the Danube River, would later connect ports throughout continental Europe, was believed to be first passable, and therefore the Romans regarded it as having many potential military purposes for their burgeoning empire. They established a fortified settlement on the southern bank of the Danube called Vindobona.

During the 5th century, when the entire Roman Empire suffered a decline, Vindobona too suffered. There is evidence of a devastating storage fire and other developmental setbacks. Little is known about the region until Vindobona's military importance peaked for the first time during the Crusades of 11th and 12th centuries.

The first permanent bridge was believed to have been built over the Danube between 1435 and 1440, with trading interests spawning the construction.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the city defenses were radically improved under the continuous threat of foreign invasion. The first serious fortification of the old city of Vienna, the Altstadt, was erected. It consisted of multiple, outward-pointing bastions along a wide city wall all of which was surrounded again by a fire zone (completely cleared space to prevent enemies from "smoking out" the city). The city's attempts to protect itself proved successful twice, as Vienna resisted the Turkish sieges of 1529 and 1683. Also, this time period was marked by rapid population growth. Certain segments of the middle class moved to what were some of the worlds first "suburbs." Evidence shows that these suburban areas actually developed from previously existing settlements of the 3rd century. Those suburbs, not protected by the bastions or fire zone, were razed and rebuilt multiple times as a result of attacks and also population movement.
Vienna had, single handedly, halted the Turkish invasion of all central Europe and, understanding the severity of foreign invasion, moved to increase city defenses. During the early 17th century, the fire zone was extended-it essentially doubled in width to 1700 feet from the bastions. This extension required that approximately 900 homes be relocated-no small feat! And, the entire defensive mechanism was surrounded by a moat. Also at this point, the suburban areas had become so well established that they began petitioning for their own defensive system. As a result, the legal boundary of the city was extended and the Commission of Defense was instated. Prince Eugene of Savoy advised this Commission on ways of protecting "Greater Vienna" from attack, and in 1704 he began construction on Linienwall. Linienwall surrounded the main suburban complex and included its own 570-foot wide fire zone and a 100-foot wide space just inside the wall. A century later, Linienwall was converted into a customs barrier for the city and remained and integral part of urban control until 1893 when it was demolished.
In 1809, Napoleon invaded and captured Vienna, and in the process, demolished the city's complex defense system. For the first half of the 19th century, then, the city remained defenseless with the former first zone serving as something like a park for residents of both the Alstadt and the suburbs. The ruins of the city wall and bastions and this "dead" public space prevented the inner city's expansion and was viewed as an uneconomic use of property. In response to this opinion of the unused land, a competition was held to determine what could/would be done to it. The Ringstrasse was pitched in 1858.

Bibiliography

A.E.G. Morris, The History of Urban Form (1979)
Jackson J. Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Volume II, 1999.
www.magwien.gv.at/english/history
www.austria-café.com

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