I’m on a 4-week stint in Vienna in late-spring/early-summer. On a bright and early weekday morning, I go out of my way to Hannovermarkt (Hanover market) in the city’s 20th district. I only have one destination in mind: to try shawarma (Döner), done Syrian style.
Danube morning: photo by Christian Stemper, courtesy of Wien Tourismus (no.50401).
With this entry’s appearance, I’m on the other side of the world, 8500 kilometres away.
I dashed in and out of Vienna a handful of times between 2001 and 2003 when I lived in Heidelberg; but I have no visual records of that period in time. I’ve returned to Austria’s capital city for the first time since 2018. I wondered then how a stay in the Mariahilf, the city’s 6th district, would go.
That time is now, because I’m spending a month in the 6.
To minimize weight, I’m experimenting:
• 32-L backpack as the 1 and only piece of (carry-on) luggage, and
• “no bricks no heavy glass”, but a compact mirrorless Fuji X70 camera.
The apartment location and neighbourhood are ideal. I’m within easy reach of the city’s U-Bahn, surrounded by the U3, U4, and U6 metro lines. I’ve already located a drugstore and several grocery stores, all inside a trivial 0.5 km (0.3 mi) walk. I’ve also been told I’ll have many Viennese coffees and several meals in the area.
There’s a lot to pursue, see, and do; and there’s no time to waste.
Above/featured: Musenhaus (Muse House), Linke Wienzeile in Vienna – 18 May 2018.
Early 20th-century European artist Othmar Schimkowitz was one of many key figures in Vienna Modernism, an art movement which celebrated its centennial in 2018 in the Austrian capital city. Schimkowitz was born in Hungary and became well-known in Vienna for his architectural sculptures. In 1898, he joined the (Vienna) Secession, a group of artists which included Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, Max Kurzweil, Carl Moll, Koloman Moser, and Joseph Maria Olbrich.
Sculptures by Schimkowitz are often seen in a variety of architectural creations by Otto Wagner. Here below are three Schimkowitz examples in Vienna; all are accessible with public transit from Wiener Linien (WL) transport authority.
Featured: On the Linke Wienzeile, opposite the Naschmarkt at right – 18 May 2018 (6D1).
What: The Post Savings Bank building and Steinhof church, by Otto Wagner.
Why: These two are the most important architectural examples of 20th-century modernism.
Where: Throughout the city of Vienna.
To visit Vienna is to know Otto Wagner. A first-time visitor to the city will be forgiven for not knowing about Wagner or his creations, but throughout their time spent in the Austrian capital, they’ll encounter Wagner’s early 20th-century “Modern Architecture”
Vienna is for many the city of Beethoven, Mozart, and Strauss; the city of historic and stylish cafés with coffee and Sacher Torte; the city whose pride is revealed in the combined World Heritage Site that are the classic period architecture within the Old Town and the beautiful palace and gardens at Schönbrunn. Flowing through the city is the Danube river, memorialized in Johann Strauss II’s “An der schönen blauen Donau” (The Blue Danube).
The evolution of architectural style is plainly evident throughout the city. Around the Ringstrasse (inner ring road) is architecture in the Historicism style, with big nods to Neoclassicism in the Parliament, Neo-Gothic in City Hall and the Votivkirche, and a lot of Neo-Renaissance represented by the City Theatre, Art History Museum, Natural History Museum, Opera House, and the University.
But as calendars flipped from 1899 to 1900, the fin-du-siècle heralded a move to bold thinking, different style, and a change in the way and reasons why buildings were put together. Consequently, Vienna is a city of 20th-century modernism whose traces are found in art, architecture, and urban planning. Even with post-war reconstruction in the mid-20th century and a mindful push for environmental rigour in the 21st-century, Vienna still remains in many ways Otto Wagner’s city.
Previously, I provided short biographies for artist Gustav Klimt, artist and designer Koloman Moser, and architect Otto Wagner, and why they are important figures to the arts and culture scene in early 20th-century Vienna. These three figures are buried in Hietzing Cemetery in the 13th district of Hietzing at the city’s western periphery.
Located to the southwest of the former imperial summer residence Schönbrunner Schlosspark, Hietzing Cemetery is modest in size with an area of over 9.7 hectares (24 acres) and containing over 11-thousand graves. With the present site inaugurated in 1787, the cemetery has seen several expansion phases and survived damage from the Second World War.
It’s an easy ride on the city’s U4 subway, formerly Otto Wagner’s municipal railway (Wiener Stadtbahn), to one of its stations at Hietzing. From Hietzing station, it’s a quick hop on a bus to the cemetery’s main gate.
Fotoeins Fotografie 