Michael Schafler  

Birth of Modern Europe

Mr. Meyers

Web Walks Research Essay

Vienna:  A Perfect Plan?

Staring down at an aerial view map of Vienna reveals far more than simply a myriad of streets and boulevards; it opens up a window into Viennese culture and society.  Vienna's physical organization is unique in many ways, but mostly for how it reflects and contrasts with the lives of the people living inside the great city.  Like the grid-iron cities in the United States that trace their roots back to Jeffersonian agrarian idealism, Vienna's physical organization is a statement about it's history and culture.  Furthermore, the architecture that can be found within Vienna's borders are some of the finest existing examples of gothic and baroque architecture anywhere in the world. 

            The basic geometry that the city of Vienna is based on, is that of a circle, or more precisely of several concentric circles within one another.  This geometry dates back to when Vienna was still a fortified city, surrounded by a single circle of walls.  As time progressed and this inner city expanded outwards, new walls were built again and again to accommodate the growing metropolis.  Eventually, the protective value of city walls dwindled down to nothing, and starting in 1857, wide tree-lined boulevards were installed in their place.  The first of these roads to be constructed was the famous Ringstrasse (Ring) which encircled the entire inner portion of the city, the Stadt.  The Ringstrasse was more than just another road.  It served the purpose of dividing the Stadt from the rest of the city, but did so in a non-constricting way that left itself open to the public.  No longer did walls physically prevent citizens from easily accessing some of the finest aspects of their city.  In fact, inside of the Ringstrasse is the home of some of the most grandiose and important public buildings and spaces in all of Vienna.  The Siccardsburg and van der Nòlls Opera, for example, is one of the most celebrated and most visited buildings in Vienna.  Of course, the Ringstrasse also served and still does serve as a vehicle for boosting the businesses of Vienna.  The Ringstrasse was lined with the finest shops in the city, and “one could ride, stroll, and shop as well as contemplate heroic statuary and architectural representations of the spirit of commerce, learning, drama, political wisdom, and all the rest.”[1]  What the Ringstrasse ultimately accomplished was a "kind of arena for the mixture of activities appropriate to a leisure class that had hitherto been confined to the City."[2]  People were finally appropriating their time to use the city to it's full potential.

            The Ringstrasse served an extremely important role of bringing Vienna into the same leagues as London and Paris in terms of its desirability to tourists.  Pre-Ringstrasse Vienna had little appeal to tourists, because of its relatively inconvenient geography, lack of an efficient transportation system, and because of its 2 hotels, compared with London’s 200.[3]  When the Ringstrasse was built in 1857, at least two of these major problems were completely remedied.  Even the mighty Ringstrasse could not by itself make Vienna easier to get to, but it could and did create an artery in the city that had the ability to transport tourists to all the major attractions of the great city.  While strolling along the Ringstrasse, “practically every tourist attraction would be within easy walking distance.”[4]  With the Ringstrasse in place, Vienna became a pedestrian city, and everything a tourist might want was available on the Ringstrasse.  The hotels that lined (and still line) the Ringstrasse could compete with all other hotels in Europe including the Savoy in London and the Ritz and Bristol in Paris.  The Grand Hotel and the Imperial Hotel are two fine examples of the kind of architectural mastery and posh accommodations that Vienna could provide to wealthy tourists, as well as its own aristocracy.  The Imperial was “converted from the palace of the Duke of Württemberg”[5] and was described in 1877 as “the favourite hostelry of crowned heads, their heirs-apparent, and ambassadors.”[6]  Not to be outdone, the Grand was considered by the Allgemeine Bauzeitung “a first class hotel of a world metropolis.” whose decorations and facilities “stood, in word, at the height of the age.”[7]     

            The radial organization of Vienna certainly did not end with the Ringstrasse.  In fact, the Ringstrasse is just the beginning of it.  As one moves out of the Ringstrasse, Vienna opens up to its inner suburbs, known as districts 2-9.  The second ring road of Vienna, the GurtÁl, surrounds these inner suburbs.  Although it is far less glorified as the Ringstrasse, the GurtÁl still serves the primary purpose of defining two very different sections of Vienna- the inner suburbs, and the outer suburbs.  The inner suburbs of Vienna, just as the inner city, have a unique and rich history and culture of their own.  For one thing, the inner suburbs are home to numerous buildings of exceptional importance.  These include many palaces, churches and embassies.  The inner suburbs include the Leopoldstadt (District 2) which was, “the area allotted in 1622 to the Jews, who lived there until 1938.”[8]  An even more important part of the inner suburbs, is the world famous Prater.  The Prater is a 3,200-acre public park.  Its history dates back to when the land was the hunting and riding grounds for the aristocracy.  In 1766, the land was allocated to be transformed into the park it is today.  The Prater added immensely to the quality of life in the inner suburbs.  It brought with it, not just trees and grass, but also, restaurants, fairgrounds, racetracks, and even a stadium.  The Prater is today associated primarily with a Giant Ferris Wheel which was built in 1897.  The Prater gave all people, residents and tourists, a reason to visit the inner suburbs.

            As one moves past the GurtÁl, they enter the outer suburbs of Vienna, a part of the city whose primary use is residential, and the proletariat class of Vienna were and still are its main occupants. These outer suburbs, however, are not void of architectural importance; they are in fact unexpectedly rich in this area.  Two important buildings within the outer suburbs are the Kalrskirche and Belvedere Palace, both of which "rank among the finest existing examples of baroque architecture, a decorative style that developed in the 1600's and 1700's."[9] "(The) Karlskirche, begun in 1715, in Vienna, is dedicated to Carlo Borromeo, the Italian cardinal and saint of the Counter Reformation. What is most extraordinary about this structure is the successful coherence of its design despite a seemingly irreconcilable eclecticism. In front of a longitudinally placed oval nave stands an unusually wide facade composed of a bizarre combination of elements. A Corinthian hexastyle temple portico on top of a stepped podium, archaeological in its fidelity to Roman temple fronts, represents the entrance to the church..."[10]  Belvedere Palace was constructed between 1714 and 1722 by the architect Lukas von Hildebrandt.   Belvedere was "intended for the festivals given by the prince." and includes a beautiful landscape garden "drawn in the 18^th century by a pupil of Le NÛtre, Dominique Girard."[11] In addition to the Karlskirche and Belvedere Palace, the outer suburbs are home to the massive Central Cemetery where many famous Viennese are buried.  The inner suburbs are very much an important part of Vienna's architectural history.

            Vienna's physical layout is one that is truly unique and very successful.  The idea of having the most important parts of the city in its center is very logical and very effective.  Any part of the city can be accessed easily by the Ringstrassen  and all of the  major tourist attractions can be visited on foot.  The radial organization also provides a set of non-obtrusive barriers that separate the city into clearly and easily discernable sections, each with a distinct culture and purpose.  Vienna has proved itself to be equal to, and arguably greater, architecturally than all of the other mainstream cities of Europe.  Its beautiful buildings, parks and boulevards embellish the landscape and facilitate a city plan that could be called perfection.  Of course every city has its flaws, but from an architectural point of view, Vienna has over time ironed most of them out.