Old valve chamber
The Alte Schieberkammer is a historic building and event center located at Meiselstrasse 20 in Vienna's 15th district . It was built between 1870 and 1873 as part of the Schmelz water reservoir of the 1st Vienna High Spring Water Pipeline on an elevation opposite Schönbrunn Palace (see Schmelz ) and was used to accommodate locking devices (slides) and pipes that were needed to operate the water reservoir. In 1995, as part of the redevelopment of this area (see underground station Johnstraße , Meiselmarkt , Wiener Wasserwelt ), the City of Vienna in cooperation with Wiener Städtische Versicherung, which built apartments and a shopping center here, converted it into an event center.
As an event center
The Alte Schieberkammer offers space for events on around 280 m² on two floors. The room acoustics are also suitable for music events thanks to a special plaster. According to the website of the City of Vienna, "the premises can be rented to a limited extent for exhibitions, conferences and other activities for a fee. The prerequisite is that the activity is related to the topic of water." The building will be closed from November to March.
As a cultural institution, the Alte Schieberkammer, managed by Municipal Department 31 (Wiener Wasser), has its own website with information about current and past events. In October 2013 the week-long event "Design flow and art flow" took place, which combined a fashion pop-up store (basement) with an art exhibition (upper floor). Before that, in addition to exhibitions of works of contemporary painting , sculpture and photography, there were also theater performances, music performances and celebrations. From September 27 to 29, 2019, an exhibition with the Esperanto-language title Akvo de la Mondo (Water of the World) took place, in which realistic and ornamental paintings by four artists from four countries were shown. There was a fashion show at the vernissage.
There is no indication of cultural uses on the building itself. The lack of information and presence explains the insufficient perception of the Alte Schieberkammer in Viennese cultural life, whose institutions are very heavily concentrated in the inner-city area.
As a historical monument
The old valve chamber is a single-storey brick building with ashlar cladding, the entrance area of which is emphasized by a central projection. Its design is very similar to the former water reservoir on the Rosenhügel in Hietzing . There are embossments on the edges and windows as well as on the arched portal. Above the attic marked MDCCCLXXIII (1873) there is a group of figures with a river god and a nymph with a coat of arms. It was created in 1843 for a machine house for the Kaiser-Ferdinand-Wasserleitung on Alsergrund and was moved here in 1873. Also worth seeing is the largely preserved underground water tank, which has housed the Viktualienmarkt Meiselmarkt since the mid-1990s . The now twelve-bay pillar hall with groined vaults can be entered from below the valve chamber via gates through an exposed arcature. In the area between the Schieberkammer and the busy Johnstraße there is a farmers' market every Saturday.
literature
- Dehio Vienna, X. to XIX. and XXI. to XXIII. District (Vienna, 1996), p. 357.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 52.3 " N , 16 ° 19 ′ 10.9" E