Fotoeins Fotografie

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Posts tagged ‘Danube river’

Vienna: 1 capital city, 4 Danubes

Above/featured: Southeast view from Leopoldsberg in the city’s 19th district. Visible are the waters of the Old Danube, New Danube, Danube, and the Danube Canal. Photo, 1 Jun 2022.

Vienna loves the Danube so much that the city now has four water features with the label “Donau”.

All of it is thanks to the regulation of the Danube river after the city of Vienna and the surrounding region had to put up with frequent flooding. Vienna embarked on works of flood-control engineering in two major periods of construction: 1870 to 1875, and 1972 to 1988.

Once a former arm of the river, the Old Danube is now a crescent-shaped lake that’s been cutoff by “linearization” and straightening of the Danube. A former natural arm of the river, the Danube Canal was regulated for the first time around 1600. Most visitors will encounter the Danube Canal which is best integrated with the city with the appearance of multiple road and rail crossings and the canal’s reach with 7 of the 23 city’s districts. The Danube river proper was completely regulated and straightened during the second engineering period, which also saw construction of the New Danube as a secondary flood channel in parallel with the primary river.

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Vienna: free city views from modest heights

At the eastern limit of the Alps, the city of Vienna is built at the “low end” where the hills meet the Danube river, at a minimum altitude of about 150 metres (500 feet) above sea-level. Visitors to the Austrian capital city who don’t have much time but want a broad overview of the city will make their way to one or all of the Donauturm (Danube Tower), Riesenrad (Ferris Wheel), and Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral). Each of these landmarks requires the price of admission to get up high in the sky.

For other views at more modest heights, you’ll see there are options, especially because I’ve set foot in all 23 of the city’s districts. Below I highlight seven locations; all are free (zero charge) to access. All but one are well outside the inner city for the opportunity to explore other city districts and to gain a better sense of the physical size of the city. All images below are cropped square.

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Altstadt, Inn river, Inn, Innstadt, Passau, Bayern, Bavaria, Germany, fotoeins.com

Passau: the town of Three Rivers (Dreiflüssestadt)

Next to the Austrian border in the southeastern corner of Germany lies the Bavarian town of Passau. At the city’s so-called ‘Ortspitze’, three rivers converge: the black Ilz from the north, the green Inn from the south, and the blue Danube from the west. The unique setting provides the city with the nickname or moniker “Bavarian Venice.” Facing east and up and over the hills in the distance is Austria.

With a few short hours of late-autumn and winter daylight, I chase the remaining light on foot through a bitter windchill. The following pictures show it’s worth the effort and the sacrifice of comfort: “always for the shot(s).”

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