It’s late-19th century Vienna, and Emperor Franz Joseph I (FJ1) is in charge of the Austria-Hungary dual monarchy. He’s ordered and overseen big changes to the city landscape in Vienna. Problem is his wife Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) isn’t taking any liking to the city. To sweeten the deal (and stay close to Vienna), FJ1 commissions the construction of a quiet hidden “Palace of Dreams” in what is now the forested land near Lainz in western Vienna. It’s his present to his wife in 1886.
Today, the Hermes Villa is a part of the Wien Museum. While the grounds outside are free to walk around, there’s an admission charge to view the interior.
The north or main entrance leads to the museum inside. Emperor Franz Joseph I commissioned the architect Karl von Hasenauer for the design and construction of the villa.
Genovevabrunnen (Genoveva fountain), by Viktor Tilgner, 1885.
“Putto mit Krokodil” (child with crocodile), by Viktor Tilgner, 1886.
Hermes statue, by Berlin sculptor Ernst Herter, 1888.
The villa is named after this central sculpture.
St. Francis of Assisi, by Josef Josephu, 1934. There’s another statue of St. Francis of Assisi behind the Minoritenkirche in central Vienna.
Patron saint of animals, on the 800th anniversary of his birth.
“Elisabeth: Zwang – Flucht – Freiheit”, by Ulrike Truger, 2006, to represent Empress Elisabeth. Wearing a coat, Elisabeth’s face is partly obscured by the fan in her left hand; the wings appear just below the fan.
Truger created this marble sculpture to counter against the Sisi cliché and to comment about how trapped she felt. Three aspects of the sculpture refer to her personality: a fan representing her obligation, a coat for her desire to escape, and wings for her freedom.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 20 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
I’ve been up to Kahlenberg hill a couple of times in past years, but coming up during weekdays meant I lost out on the lookout tower. A warm sunny Saturday is an opportunity to fix my error.
In 1887, the Kahlenberg railway company completed an extension of its cogwheel railway to the top of Kahlenberg (484 m/1588 ft). At the same time, the company constructed next to the railway terminus station a 22-metre high brick lookout-tower, named after the Crown Princess Stephanie of Belgium. The cogwheel railway is long gone, and there had been years when the tower was neglected or forgotten. Reopened to the public in 1992, the lookout tower is now managed and operated by Naturfreunde Döbling. The top of the Stefaniewarte lookout tower is effectively about 500 metres above sea level, providing 360° views of the city and surrounding area.
Open only on summer weekends in good weather, the tower is open until 6pm with 2€ admission. Public transport: S45- or U4-train to Heiligenstadt station, then bus 38A to Kahlenberg.
“Kronprinzessin Stefanie-Warte 1887”
The climb up the 120 or so steps was comfortable: wide deep steps, reasonable stairwell-clearing or -height.
To the northwest is the 165-metre tall Kahlenberg Transmitter tower which is not open to the public. The transmission tower is anchored by 3 pairs of cables onto 3 piers.
North. This is where the crescent of the Alps’ mountain range tapers to an end.
Southeast.
South. In the background almost 70 km in distance is the 2078-metre high Schneeberg.
Visible in this 4x digital zoom view to the southeast: DonauCity (DC) Tower 1, Danube river, Millennium Tower, Red Vienna’s Karl-Marx-Hof, the Prater and its Ferris wheel.
Visible in this 4x digital zoom view to the south: Müllverbrennungsanlage Spittelau, Ringturm, Votivkirche, Stephansdom, Peterskirche, Karlskirche, Oberes Belvedere, Hauptbahnhof complex, Arsenal communication tower, AKH general hospital.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 19 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
By chance, the math happened to work out very well today. I wandered into three city districts for some “list clearing” activity. Here’s what I found, even with me ending up in the inner city.
15. Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus
As a boy, Friedrich Stowasser lived in the area with his Jewish mother, Elsa. In 1938, they were forcibly moved out to a relative’s apartment in the 2nd district, where they survived until war’s end. That boy became the artist known as Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), whose influence is visible as an “onion dome” on top of the advertising column in the background. The City of Vienna inaugurated the small plaza in his name in 2007.
Onion dome. Hundertwasser.
5. Margareten
On the outside wall of the building at the corner of Leitgebgasse and Stöbergasse are three panels each protected by transparent plexiglass. Each panel is a visual record of what was required of residents during Allied air-raids in World War II.
The arrow shows the direction residents could go for additional shelter, pointing southeast towards Margaretengürtel (Margareten belt road).
The two arrows point to “NA” for Notausstieg, or emergency entry to an air-raid shelter below ground during World War II.
10. Favoriten
Ceramic mosaic of architect Eduard van der Nüll (1812-1868), by Fritz Rocca-Humpoletz (1894-1971). Van der Nüll and Sicardsburg designed Vienna’s Opera House whose public unveiling brought reviews so poor, they drove van der Nüll to despair and suicide.
Giant wall mural (2021), by Viennese artist nychos, at tram stop Knöllgasse. I saw this in June 2024, but to see this again in-person is neither chore nor burden at all.
1. Innere Stadt
Inside the Frauenhuber café.
“Yellow Fog”, by artist Olafur Eliasson for Verbund whose headquarters are located at Am Hof. The dynamic sculpture is active only at dusk.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 16 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
After a couple of cool cloudy and drizzly days, the sun came back, along with solid summer temperatures reaching +30°C. I had a few goals in mind, from the 1. to the 19., with the 9th district in between.
Ringturm tower (1.): 2025 wall mural titled “Verbindende Geschichten” (Stories and connections), created by Polish artist Marcin Maciejowski.
“The best”, 2nd district (2.)
Next to the Ring Road this Neo-Gothic Votive Church (9.)
Shop locally-sourced produce (19.)
Hohe Warte neighborhood (19.)
Hohe Warte, served by tram number 37.
Casino Zögernitz (19.), heavy with the presence of both Johann Strauss I & II in the present-day House of Strauss.
Rail bridge for today’s U-Bahn U6 line, near Nussdorfer Straße station (18.)
Arboreal intervention into local architecture, originally in 1981 by Friedensreich Hundertwasser (9.)
South tower, St. Stephen’s Cathedral (1.); somewhere in this image is an embedded cannonball from the 1683 siege of the city by the Ottoman Empire.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 13 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
In the 6th and 7th districts stand two massive flak towers, each over 40-metres (130 feet) in height. Including the cities of Berlin and Hamburg, the Nazis ordered construction in Vienna 3 pairs of flak towers. One pair (“pair number 5”) was completed by mid-1944. In each pair, one tower is the “Leitturm” or lead/control tower, and the other tower is the “Gefechtsturm” or gun tower. “Flak” is an abbreviation for the German word for “anti-aircraft gun”: Flugabwehrkanone.
Because of their near-indestructible nature, all 3 pairs or 6 flak-towers today are incorporated into the modern urban landscape of Vienna. The former Leitturm in the city’s 6th district is located in Esterházypark, and is home to the aquarium Haus des Meeres (Home of the Sea), including a historical description of the towers. The “partner” Gefechtsturm is located in the 7th district about 500 metres to the northeast within the Stiftskaserne complex, now in use by the Austrian federal ministry of defence and closed to the public.
“Haus des Meeres”, former Leitturm or control tower for “pair 5” in Esterházypark. The height is 47 metres (154 feet).
“Haus des Meeres”, as seen from below on Gumpendorfer Straße.
At the back is the former Gefechtsturm or gun tower for “pair 5”, now located in the Stiftskaserne. The tower height is 45 metres (148 feet).
The view east of the Gefechtsturm (gun tower) at upper-centre is from Lindengasse towards Stiftgasse.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 12 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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