We now continue, via Passauerplatz, to Judenplatz. A gruesome
pogrom took place here in 1421 (Viennese Geserah): 210 people were
burned to death, thousands of Jews were evicted, driven out or locked up
in dungeons. Not until the late 16th century did a new Jewish community
take root here, which was then banned to Leopoldstadt by Ferdinand II.
This square in the former ghetto is now a gastronomic haven.
In memory of the Holocaust, the Museum Judenplatz was opened here
in October 2000.
In a former municipal palace you can visit a clockwork museum containing
some rare objects such as an astrological clocking taking 20,904 years
over a single full rotation. The nearby doll-and toy museum is
also well worth a visit.
Our stroll continues to Freyung, one of the most beautiful
squares in Vienna, large and of irregular shape and surrounded by
impressive buildings. Amongst them the Schottenkirche, the Palais
Daun-Kinsky with its elegant baroque façade (recently restored) and
the mighty Palais Harach.
The name ‘Freyung’ points to the fact that in the Middle Ages
this was a safe haven where the monks of the Schottenkirche lent asylum
to the persecuted. The widely renovated Palais Ferstel forms a
passage between Freyung and Herrengasse with its business premises,
fashion boutiques and restaurants. Under the glass dome of the
arcades-filled interior courtyard the Café Central tempts you to
a coffee break. The poet Peter Altenberg even had his mail delivered to
this former artists-and-authors’café. He is still a faithful client
here, though merely in the form of a papier-maché figure.
In meandering Herrengasse you can discover the ancient Vienna.
Innumerable dignitaries made their mark here before you.
On Michaelerplatz with the Wiener Hofburg, things turn feudal.
First cast a glance at the Loos-Haus, a bare edifice by Adolf
Loos from 1910-1911, which Emperor Franz Joseph promptly dubbed ‘the
house without eyebrows’. The nickname hurt the artist deeply, as he
had expected at least some praise for his futuristic project in the
heart of the city.
Instead of a friendly tap on the shoulder it merely gave him a
stomach ulcer…In Café Griensteidl, complete – in summer –
with Schanigarten (terrace), you can enjoy different kinds of
coffee such as a Grosser Brauner or a Verlängerter in the
company of journalists and other salaried writers, for whom this is
their traditional meetingplace.
The Hofburg, the Habsburg empire power centre until 1918, is a
conglomerate of 19 interior courtyards, 18 main- and auxiliary
buildings, portals, arches, hidden passages and more than 2,500 rooms.
Generations of architects laboured during more than five centuries over
this monumental residence, but many of their plans were never executed.
Where sumptious court-ceremony is concerned, the Habsburgs were past
masters. Their festivities here, in the company of high European
nobility, paved the way to their eventual downfall.
Next to the Hofburg lies Heldenplatz. The intention was that a
wing of the new Hofburg was to be built here, but this never came about.
Consequently a large square was created in the heart of the city centre,
with greenery and pompous equestrian statues of the legendary Prince
Eugene and Archbishop Karl. The sight of so much greenery in front of
the baroque Hofburg is truly fascinating.Across the wall of the public
gardens the town hall’s slender tower greets the stroller from afar.
The Viennese people can really think themselves fortunate to have
this
kind of a municipal landscape. In summer especially, visitors flock to
it. The classicist Äussere Burgtor (outer castle tower) from
1824, close to where one enters Heldenplatz, recalls the bloody massacre
by the Napoleonic troops at Leipzig.
Now return to Michaelerplatz via the imperial maze. From there we
proceed across Kohlmarkt to the civilian town. Along the 200 metres long
and almost as wide Graben (moat) you discover Vienna’s most
exclusive business premises: jewellers, high-class boutiques and trendy
fashion shops. The baroque Dreifaltigkeitssäule (Trinity Column)
from 1692 in the middle of the Graben was built after an imperial
promise in the plague year of 1679. The column was a model for many
similar models in the Habsburg empire.
